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The Science of Power: Billionaires, Elites, and Social Mobility
Billionaires are under the Brookings microscope. In his new book, Billionaires - Reflections on the Upper Crust, Darrell West dissects the origins and consequences of super-wealth. He gives us plenty...
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Horatio Alger Goes to Washington: Representation and Social Mobility
Progressives worry that growing income inequality is concentrating both wealth and political power in the hands of elites. The Tea Party worries that government is out of touch with ordinary Americans....
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Mexican Thinking on Social Mobility
A thoughtful, provocative report on intergenerational mobility just landed on my desk. It adopts an innovative approach to measurement, is honest about the costs as well as benefits of relative...
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What Do We Mean When We Talk About Inequality?
Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, famously argued that since everyone favors equality of one sort or another, the key question is: Equality of what? A fierce argument in the wonkosphere...
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The Character Factor: Measures and Impact of Drive and Prudence
Abstract There is growing interest among psychologists and economists in the importance of “non-cognitive” skills for doing well in life. In this paper we assess the quality of measures available in US...
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Character and Opportunity: The Arguments and the Data
Character and opportunity go hand in hand. Character strengths are often needed in order to take the opportunities that come our way, including the prudence to value the future over the present and the...
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Essay Series on Character and Opportunity
Downloads Download the full set of Character and Opportunity Essays (PDF) Image Source: © Lucas Jackson / Reuters
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An Introduction to Essays on Character and Opportunity
Richard Reeves provides an introduction to the Center on Children and Families'Essay Series on Character and Opportunity.This is a superb collection of essays. I’m biased, of course. But I defy you to...
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2014 Midterms: Inequality Lurks Beneath the Surface of Political Discourse
Editor’s Note: As part of the 2014 Midterm Elections Series, experts across Brookings will weigh in on issues that are central to this year's campaigns, how the candidates are engaging those topics,...
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Janet Yellen´s Inequality Speech Revealed a "Closet Conservative"
By speaking out on the issue of inequality, has Fed Chair Janet Yellen risked appearing as a ‘partisan hack’? That is certainly the view for some on the right. (For a nuanced version of the argument...
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Can We Make Government Work?
Event Information October 31, 201410:30 AM - 12:00 PM EDTSaul/Zilkha RoomsThe Brookings Institution1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20036Register for the EventThe role of the federal...
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What to Change: Character or Incentives?
The development of certain character strengths, such as prudence and drive, clearly contributes to individual and collective success, as last week’s publications from our Character and Opportunity...
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Social Mobility: Can the U.S. Learn from the U.K.?
Yes, I know: social mobility is not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of the United Kingdom – more likely it will be the hereditary monarchy, expensive soccer stars, or Downton Abbey....
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Hitting Kids: American Parenting and Physical Punishment
When Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson was indicted for hitting his son with a ‘switch’ in September 2014, there was a public furor – with arguments on both sides, but a general sense...
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To Grow Black Opportunity, We Have to Defeat Racism
Black Americans have poor mobility prospects – in both upwards and downward directions – as our own work and research by Bhashkar Mazumder shows. The gap results from a complex mix of factors,...
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Progressives Lost the Election, but Their Ideas Are Winning
Progressives, these days, are a gloomy bunch, and it's not just because of the outcomes of last week's election. As they see it, there's much to be gloomy about: Poverty levels are stuck, they say,...
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Defining Opportunity and Prosperity Beyond Economic Growth
Event Information November 18, 201412:30 PM - 2:00 PM ESTSaul/Zilkha RoomsThe Brookings Institution1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20036Register for the EventAmerica has long prided itself...
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The “Great Gatsby Curve” for Character Skills and Mobility
The “Great Gatsby curve” debate, on the link between income inequality and intergenerational mobility, had gone stale– but now Bhashkar Mazumder has given it a new lease of life by focusing on skill...
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Skipping School is Bad News, Even for Pre-K
There is a lively debate about the promise of universal pre-K for narrowing education gaps and promoting more social mobility. So far the focus has been on availability and cost – but it turns out that...
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5 Reasons to be Cheerful about Social Mobility this Holiday Season
As Congress plods to the end of a historically unproductive session, it is easy to lose faith in our ability meet collective challenges, including the big one of improving social mobility. But, there...
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