Richard Curtin says consumer confidence surge due in large part to Trump victory
December 13, 2016
Consumer confidence increased 4.5% to 98 in December. Richard Curtin says Trump’s surprise victory is the cause: 'When asked what news they had heard of recent economic developments, more consumers spontaneously mentioned the expected positive impact of new economic policies than ever before...
Burgard on the persistence of job insecurity and psychological distress in later life
December 7, 2016
Sarah Burgard and Sarah Seelye used data from the Americans’ Changing Lives study to examine the link between the persistent threat of losing one’s job and psychological distress in later life: Our data give us the unique opportunity to examine to observe how the persistence of job...
Findings from the Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program survey shows slow progress with sustainability efforts
November 30, 2016
A joint program between the Graham Institute and the Institute for Social Research, the Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program was founded in 2012 to assess the sustainability knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes across U-M students, faculty, and staff over time. The 2015 report shows slow...
Study by Langa et al. finds increase in education may lead to improved population brain health
November 22, 2016
In a story on National Public Radio, Ken Langa says researchers don’t know why education protects against dementia, but there are some theories: “One is that education might actually change the brain itself,” Langa says. “We think that it actually creates more, and more...
Pfeffer & Schoeni Edit Special Issue of RSF Journal
November 18, 2016
Fabian Pfeffer and Robert Schoeni are the editors of a special issue of the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. The issue, Wealth Inequality: Economic and Social Dimensions, brings together 10 articles exploring facets of inequality such as the Great Recession, retirement,...
Eleanor Singer Receives Monroe G. Sirken Award in Interdisciplinary Survey Methods Research
November 1, 2016
The Monroe G. Sirken awards recognizes, “a distinguished researcher for contributions to interdisciplinary survey research that improve the theory and methods of collecting, verifying, processing, presenting, or analyzing survey data.” Eleanor Singer is the 2016 recipient:For...
Shaefer and collaborators proposal on alleviating child poverty cited in New York Times
October 21, 2016
In a forthcoming article in the Russel Sage Foundation journal Luke Shaefer and other experts on poverty and child well-being propose replacing the child tax credit, which has less benefit for very low income families, with a $250 monthly check for every child in the country.For more detail, read...
New study from Birditt et al. finds associations between chronic stress, negative marital quality and waist circumference
October 13, 2016
A new study from Kira Birditt, et al., Chronic Stress and Negative Marital Quality Among Older Couples: Associations With Waist Circumference, finds that, “partner stress has direct associations with waist circumference among couples and this link is moderated by negative marital...
Corning & Schuman work on generations & collective memory cited in WaPo column
October 11, 2016
John Sides of the Washington Post cited work Amy Corning and Howard Schuman did in 1998 and 2014 about the public’s perception of Christopher Columbus. Although they found a clear increase in in critical portrayals of Columbus in their analysis of textbooks beginning in 1998, they found a...
Shaefer Inaugural Director for New UM Poverty Solutions Initiative
October 6, 2016
UM President Mark Schlissel announced the new Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan initiative on Wednesday. The initiative will explore and test models to ease the effects of poverty and share the knowledge broadly. “The initiative will be solution-oriented, building on work that...