In the News
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Ziliak quoted in New York Times article about expansion of feeding programs
UKCPR Director James Ziliak was quoted in an April 4 article in the New York Times about federal expansion of feeding programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the summer feeding program for school-aged children. The multi-billion-dollar expansion of food assistance is in response to growing rates of food insecurity caused by the Covid19 pandemic, as well as an attempt to address shortfalls that fragile families have faced since the Great Recession. The expansion, initiated through executive order directed to the US Department of Agriculture, represents the largest food assistance increase since the founding of the modern food stamp program, according to Ziliak. Read the NYT article.
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Ziliak to chair panel of experts examining Supplemental Poverty Measure
UKCPR Director James Ziliak will chair a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering Medicine panel tasked with evaluating and recommending improvements to the nation’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM is used by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to improve understanding of how lower income people are affected by the economy. Read more.
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Ziliak quoted in Washington Post on tax credit proposal
UKCPR Director James Ziliak was quoted in a Jan. 22 Washington Post article about an economic stimulus proposal currently under discussion by the administration of Joe Biden. The plan, which is currently in development with Congressional leaders, would direct recurring monthly payments to American families and potentially increase child tax credits, according to unnamed administration officials. Read more.
Mission Statement
The University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit academic research center established in 2002. Our research informs evidence-based policy on the causes, consequences, and correlates of poverty, inequality, and food insecurity in the United States.
UKCPR is a member of the Collaborative of Poverty Centers sponsored by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with underwriting from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The other member poverty centers are located at Columbia University, Howard University, Stanford University, University of California-Davis, University of California-Irvine, University of Michigan, and University of Washington. The goal of the CPC is to improve the effectiveness of public policies to reduce poverty and inequality and their impacts on the well-being of the American people.
Spotlight
Christopher Bollinger is the Sturgill Endowed Professor of Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky.
Chris’s research focuses on econometrics, labor, and applied microeconomics, with a particular emphasis on measurement error in large datasets used extensively by researchers. His research looks at how response errors and non-responses affect the measurement of statistics such as earnings, participation in poverty alleviation programs, and crime.
Chris’s work has appeared in top-tier journals such as the Journal of the American Statistical Association, The Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Econometrics.
In addition to his research, Chris has also provided administrative leadership as a faculty member at UK. He has served as director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, which produces the annual Kentucky Economic Outlook, and he is currently executive director of the Kentucky Research Data Center, which is part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Federal Statistical Research Data Center network.
Most recently Chris was recognized for his research accomplishments by being named a 2021-22 UK Research Professor.
Read more about Chris on his faculty page.