Last week on the preeminent social media site, Bluesky, a spirited debate broke out between Matt Darling and seemingly most of the site’s other users. The point of contention was how many gig workers there are in America. Darling pointed to data from the BLS that he said indicated the Read more…
Over the summer, I wrote about cuts to food stamps, formally known as SNAP, in the Republicans’ reconciliation bill. At the time, experts estimated that the bill would force at least 2 million of SNAP’s roughly 42 million recipients to lose their benefits. Unfortunately, it appears that the Trump administration Read more…
As my dedicated readers will no doubt have noticed, I’ve been absent from posting for a few weeks. This is for good reason: at the end of August, my wife and I welcomed a baby boy into the world. It’s hard to overstate how much our lives have changed since Read more…
The Zohran Mamdani free bus proposal has been living fare-free in my brain for quite a while now. There’s a vibrant debate among transportation experts and urbanists as to how making transit free compares with other transit improvements in terms of increasing ridership, decreasing car dependency, and other outcomes. While Read more…
Big news in the cash assistance research space this week: there’s a new working paper out that looks at the effects of unconditional cash aid on the cognitive development of children in poverty. Surprisingly, and perhaps disconcertingly to advocates of cash aid such as myself, the study finds that children Read more…
On the Fourth of July, President Trump signed the Republican reconciliation bill into law. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the devastating impacts that this bill would have on SNAP. Other publications have extensively covered the overall effects of the bill, namely, harming low-income people and helping rich people. Read more…
No graphs or maps today. I wanted to cash in on the Zohran Mamdani bonanza before something else becomes the topic of the day. But I’ll get back to Zohran in a minute. I recently read Elizabeth Popp Berman’s book “Thinking Like an Economist,” and it has given me a Read more…
Despite all the madness of the past week, I want to turn my attention back to the Republicans’ so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which continues to move through Congress. The legislation will do many things, most of which involve taking money from poor people and giving money to rich people. The Read more…
Philadelphia’s main transit agency, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is facing a financial cliff. On July 1st, SEPTA will cut service by 45% if state lawmakers do not provide additional funding. Bus routes and regional rail routes will be eliminated, stations will be closed, fares will be raised, and Read more…
Hello and welcome to my first post. In 2022, voters in Washington, DC, passed Initiative 82, which raised the tipped minimum wage to be on par with the standard minimum wage. Prior to this (and the way it is in most other states), tipped workers were subject to much lower Read more…