Policy Options for Improving Economic Opportunity and Mobility

Posted by Peter G. Peterson Foundation on June 22, 2015

A new report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation presents differing policy options from two experts on how to foster broader economic opportunity and mobility. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, contends that deep inequalities in income, education, and mobility must be addressed to expand opportunity to low-income Americans. He recommends reforms such as raising the minimum wage and expanding federal housing assistance. Scott Winship, the Walter B. Wriston Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues for strengthening tax credits for low-income families and for more local anti-poverty measures, saying that “ill-designed safety-net programs can do as much or more to impede mobility as they do to promote it.”

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/e21_05.htm#.VYi_qflVikr