The Economy, Public Policies and Poverty in the United States: Implications for Hong Kong

Abstract

[evdate 2010-12-16] IAS Distinguished Lecture on Inequality and Poverty. Abstract: The poverty rate in the US today is about the same as it was in the late 1960s and is much higher than in many European countries because the 21st century economy does not deliver the benefits of prosperity and productivity to all workers. For most of the last 35 years, the gains from economic growth have not “trickled down” to the poor, and government policies have not done enough to help less-educated workers and their children escape from poverty.

The “Great Recession,” which began in the US in December 2007, has both raised poverty and made reducing poverty in the future more difficult. Prof Danziger shows that American attitudes toward labor market policies and toward social welfare policies and tolerance of large inequalities differ from those in most European countries and helps explain why US poverty and inequality are higher than in many European countries.

He concludes that US antipoverty policies have the potential to reduce poverty and promote opportunities in today’s globalized economies, and thus are relevant to Hong Kong. For example, US experiences influenced the very successful “war on child poverty” that was launched in the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the late 1990’s. Policies like the ones implemented in the UK that focus on two issues deserve consideration by policymakers interested in reducing poverty—(1) making work pay for workers adversely affected by today’s globalized economy and (2) promoting educational opportunities for low income children to reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Sheldon Danziger is the Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy, Director of the National Poverty Center, and Director of the Ford Foundation Program on Poverty and Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.

Duration: 91 min.