I promised I’d follow up on my piece from earlier in the week about barriers to opportunity with ideas about how to take them down. A useful way to think about policies targeting opportunity is to consider those that can address near-term opportunity barriers and those that address longer-term barriers. Near-term opportunity enhancersRunning a full-employment labor market: Extensive evidence shows that lower-wage and minority workers are disproportionately helped by tight labor markets. It also implies a role for fiscal policy to help create more labor demand where it is lacking, as with my next policy suggestion. When poor families with young children get extra income, Medicaid, nutritional support or a housing voucher, once those children hit adulthood, they have better earnings and educational and health outcomes compared with young children who didn’t receive such interventions.

Source: Washington Post April 05, 2017 19:12 UTC