The 2016 presidential election has brought to the fore proposals to fundamentally restructure the U.S. anti-poverty safety net. Even though much of the current debate centers on shrinking or eliminating federal programs, we believe it is necessary and useful to explore alternatives that represent new approaches and significant innovations to existing policy and programs. This double issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences builds on and extends the scholarly conversation on the state of current U.S. anti-poverty policy by high-lighting a collection of related innovative and specific policy proposals for the United States. Well before the election, the authors of the articles in this volume were explicitly tasked with proposing substantially new policies solidly grounded in social science evidence that have the potential to transform anti-poverty policy. Assuming the goal to be reducing poverty among the U.S. population, we asked what new ideas should be seriously considered. The authors responded with carefully crafted proposals that tackle poverty from a variety of perspectives. Some of these proposals are more of a departure from existing policies than others, some borrow from other countries or revive old ideas, some are narrow in focus and others much broader, but all seek to move anti-poverty efforts into new territory. (Author abstract) 

Contents:

Introduction

Anti-Poverty Policy Innovations: New Proposals for Addressing Poverty in the United States

Lawrence Berger, Maria Cancian, and Katherine Magnuson

Part I. Tax and Transfer Programs 

A Universal Child Allowance: A Plan to Reduce Poverty and Income Instability Among Children in the United States

H. Luke Shaefer, Sophie Collyer, Greg Duncan, Kathryn Edin, Irwin Garfinkel, David Harris, Timothy M. Smeeding, Jane Waldfogel, Christopher Wimer, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa

Cash for Kids

Marianne P. Bitler, Annie Laurie Hines, and Marianne Page

A Targeted Minimum Benefit Plan: A New Proposal to Reduce Poverty Among Older Social Security Recipients

Pamela Herd, Melissa Favreault, Madonna Harrington Meyer, and Timothy M. Smeeding

Reforming Policy for Single-Parent Families to Reduce Child Poverty

Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer

Reconstructing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to More Effectively Alleviate Food Insecurity in the United States 

Craig Gundersen, Brent Kreider, and John V. Pepper

A Renter's Tax Credit to Curtail the Affordable Housing Crisis 

Sara Kimberlin, Laura Tach, and Christopher Wimer

The Rainy Day Earned Income Tax Credit: A Reform to Boost Financial Security by Helping Low-Wage Workers Build Emergency Savings

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Sara Sternberg Greene, Ezra Levin, and Kathryn Edin