Category: inequality, poverty, social mobility

The sad, sad story of the UNICEF Child Poverty Report and its critics

~ MilesCorak ~ 9 Comments

David Morely, UNICEF Canada’s Executive Director, has just issued a bold challenge. “It is clearly time for Canada to prioritize children when planning budgets and spending our nation’s resources, even in tough economic times,” says a press release announcing the publication of a report on child poverty.

In fact, the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card released today is the 10th in a regular series on child poverty in rich countries, each report hitting the headlines every second year or so.

Sadly, when it comes to discussions of child poverty kick-started by these reports there are two things that are not new: the conclusions; and the reaction of pundits and many policy makers. I say “sadly” because the two are not linked, and public policy discussion is not the better.

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Social mobility and inequality in the UK and the US: How to slide down the Great Gatsby Curve

~ MilesCorak ~ 3 Comments

In a speech given this morning to announce an update on the government’s Strategy for Social Mobility, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minster of the United Kingdom, said that “We need an open society where people choose their place”; he said that “The effect of social class and class attitudes on Social Mobility are the ghost in the machine.”; and, in summary, he said that “We are a long distance from being a classless society”.

Yet in the same breath, he also said that it is a myth to suggest that reducing inequality will promote social mobility.

This is surely an inappropriate representation of the role of inequality in determining opportunity.

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Social mobility is about twice as great in Australia and Canada than in the United Kingdom and the United States

~ MilesCorak ~ 16 Comments

Social mobility is about twice as great in Australia and Canada than in the United Kingdom and the United States.

This is the first of three facts upon which my presentation to The Sutton Trust and The Carnegie Corporation workshop on social mobility called: “Social Mobility and Education in the Four Major Anglophone Countries” on May 21st. This summit of academics, politicians, and public policy advocates coincided with the one year anniversary since the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg, released the government’s social mobility strategy.

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A little secret Denmark shares with Canada about social mobility that Americans and Brits should know

~ MilesCorak ~ 35 Comments

In an article that appeared earlier this year, The New York Times described the extent to which rich parents can expect to see their children grow up to be rich adults, as well as the likelihood that the poor raise children destined for poverty.

Surprisingly enough, the article came close to concluding that if Americans are interested in living the American Dream—where family background has little influence on adult outcomes—they should move to, of all places, Denmark, or if crossing the Atlantic seems daunting, then, as a second best, to Canada.

Indeed, Denmark has been a darling of sorts ever since Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett highlighted in their book, The Spirit Level, that Danish life is so much better along a whole host of dimensions because income inequality is so much lower.

But Denmark has a little secret, one it shares with Canada, about how kids get jobs, and about how this determines life chances even in places with low inequality.

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“What the U.S. can Learn from Britain’s War on Poverty”

~ MilesCorak ~ 2 Comments

In 1999 Tony Blair pledged to end child poverty in the United Kingdom within 20 years.

There were three pillars to this pledge: (1) making work pay; (2) increasing income support to families with children whether or not parents are working; and (3) investing more in children.

Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University examines each of these pillars in a presentation to Cornell University earlier this year. She also discusses the results of these policies and the lessons for the United States.

Waldfogel’s one hour presentation is a summary of  the major messages in her book Britain’s War on Poverty published by the Russell Sage Foundation.

Inequality and social mobility

~ MilesCorak ~ 9 Comments

[These are the opening remarks I made to the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology of the Parliament of Canada. I appeared as a witness at the May 2nd meeting of the Committee dealing with Social inclusion and cohesion in Canada to address the topic of inequality. These remarks do not substitute for the official transcripts that will be produced by the Standing Committee.]

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