Klarman Fellow to study consequences of the social safety net

Neil Cholli, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received a grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth to study how inequality affects economic growth and well-being in the United States.

Cholli’s project, “The Effects of Participating in Multiple Safety Net Programs on Family Well-Being,” seeks to empirically investigate the incidence and consequences of participation in income support programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, child care assistance, energy assistance and others. As a data source, he will use anonymized, internal administrative records from the state of Virginia on program application and participation linked to earnings and crime records.

“Although many individuals participate in multiple income support programs, there is little research examining how these programs interact together to affect socioeconomic outcomes,” Cholli said. The unique administrative data will allow him to examine these realities with a higher degree of accuracy over time than has been the case with survey data.

As a Klarman Fellow, Cholli is working to understand the mechanisms of social mobility and to help people transcend generational poverty. He wants to use his knowledge of labor and public economics to be a part of shaping social policy in the U.S.

Equitable Growth is a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. Over the past decade, the organization has distributed roughly $11 million to nearly 400 grantees at various U.S. colleges and universities.