ABSTRACT
The dispassionate observer of the last half century of poverty and inequality research might easily characterize the field as one of the great success stories of modern social science. The breakthroughs are many and include (1) building a sophisticated infrastructure for monitoring key trends in poverty, segregation, income inequality, racial and gender inequality, and other labor market outcomes; (2) resolving long-standing debates about how much discrimination there is, whether residential segregation matters, how much social mobility there is, and whether social classes are disappearing; and (3) making substantial headway in understanding the deeper causes of poverty, mobility, and many types of inequality. If poverty and inequality are still very much with us, it is not because they are any longer “puzzles” or enigmas driven by forces we cannot fathom. It instead is because we have collectively decided not to undertake the well-known institutional reforms necessary to reduce them.
