• Welfare reform
• Child support enforcement
• Employment and training
• Workforce development
• Unemployment insurance
• Food stamps, housing
• State automated systems
• Services integration

We perform both qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation studies in these areas and we have in-depth experience helping state and federal clients to develop demonstration programs and to design program evaluations. Our policy research work includes both long-term studies and quick turnaround policy analyses.


Key Services

• Technical assistance to states in designing and operating programs for welfare clients and other low-income populations
• Research on a variety of topics including job training, welfare, and disability policy Process evaluations of employment and training programs
• Impact and cost-benefit analyses of welfare programs
• Analysis of national data sets and state-level administrative data
• Development of evaluation plans
• Assessment of effects of welfare reform on other government programs (e.g., Medicaid, housing, Unemployment Insurance, SSI)
• Management of conferences, workshops and expert panels

Sample Projects

• Provided technical assistance to states to design and refine strategies that help welfare recipients become employed, retain their jobs, and advance in the labor market and to prepare them for participation in a rigorous, multi-site process and impact evaluation.
• Reviewed locally implemented housing authority employment and training programs and their linkages to the broader employment and training and human services systems to assess if and how programs changed in response to welfare reform.
• Researched disability literature to determine how employment programs could be applied to hard-to-employ welfare clients.
• Provided technical assistance to states to ensure that welfare clients retain Medicaid and food stamp benefits after states de-link them from cash assistance.
• Analyzed the Survey of Income and Program Participation to understand how the long-term earnings patterns of low-income households that are eligible for Food Stamps are related to their participation in the program.
• Developed impact and process evaluation designs for Responsible Fatherhood interventions aimed at low-income non-custodial fathers.
• Conducted interviews and data collection to document the composition and trends of welfare child-only cases over time in three states.
• Examined the impact of welfare reform on low-skill wages and employment in 12 rural and small metropolitan areas around the country.
• Studied the relationship between the federal child support program financing structure and resources allocated to the child support program and the state and local levels.
• Compared administrative approaches to reviewing and adjusting child support orders in three states.
• Studying how a state's economic and demographic characteristics affect its performance in five areas that will be linked to federal child support payments.
• Examined employment supports used by successfully employed adults with disabilities.
• Designed a comprehensive evaluation comparing the net outcomes of a new Social Security Administration work program for Disability Insurance beneficiaries to outcomes under the current system.