Overview
The Carsey Institute seeks to understand the challenges facing working families and how public policies can address them. We provide timely research documenting workforce trends, examining relevant public policies and their impact on the economic security of families, investigating workplace benefits and policies, and studying the impact of macro-level economic change on real life families. Our work and policy research will promote understanding by making work and family data and analysis available to policy makers, researchers, media, advocates, and the general public.
Publications
National
- Family-Friendly Policies for Rural Working Mothers (Glauber, 2009, Policy Brief No. 15)
- The New, Longer Road to Adulthood: Schooling, Work, and Idleness among Rural Youth (Snyder, McLaughlin, and Coleman-Jensen, 2009, Report No. 9)
- Rural Workers More Likely to Work Nontraditional Shifts (Saenz, 2009, Issue Brief No. 5)
- Rural Workers Would Benefit from Unemployment Insurance Modernizations (Shattuck, 2009, Policy Brief No. 13)
- Seventy-eight Percent of Working Rural Families to Receive Full Making Work Pay Tax Credit (Mattingly, 2009, Fact Sheet No. 14)
- Working Hard for the Money: Trends in Women's Employment 1970-2007 (Smith, 2008, Reports on Rural America, Volume 1, Number 5)
- Measures and Methods: Four Tenets for Rural Economic Development in the New Economy (Brown-Graham and Lambe, 2008, Policy Brief No. 9)
- Low Wages Prevalent in Direct Care and Child Care Workforce (Smith and Baughman, 2007, Policy Brief No. 7)
- Rural Americans Continue to Account for Disproportionate High Share of U.S. Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan (O'Hare and Bishop, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 9)
- Biofueling Rural Development (Kleinschmit, 2007, Policy Brief No. 5)
- EITC is Vital for Working-Poor Families in Rural America (O'Hare and Kneebone, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 8)
- Employment Rates Higher Among Rural Mothers Than Urban Mothers (Smith, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 7)
- Rural Workers Would Benefit More Than Urban Workers from an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage (O'Hare, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 4)
- Rural Families Choose Home-Based Child Care for Their School-Aged Children (Smith, 2006, Policy Brief No. 3)
- Low-Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss (Galsmeier and Salant, 2006, Policy Brief No. 2)
- U.S. Rural Soldiers Account for a Disproportionately High Share of Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan (O'Hare and Bishop, 2006, Fact Sheet No. 3)
New England
- Home Health Care Workers in New Hampshire: Keeping NH Elders in Their Homes (Smith, 2009, New England Policy Brief No. 2)
- Paid Sick Time Helps Workers Balance Work and Family (Smith, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 13)
- Youth Aspirations and Sense of Place in a Changing Rural Economy: The Coos Youth Study (Stracuzzi, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 11)
- Many New Hampshire Jobs Do Not Pay a Livable Wage (Kenyon and Churilla, 2008, New England Issue Brief No. 10)
- The State of Coos County: Local Perspectives on Community and Change (Colocousis, 2008, New England Issue Brief No. 7)
- The State of Working NH 2007 (Churilla, 2007, New England Issue Brief No. 5)
- The State of Working Vermont 2006 (Churilla, 2006, Issue Brief No. 2, copublication with the Public Assets Institute)
- The State of Working NH 2006 (Churilla, 2006, New England Issue Brief No. 1)
Selected current projects
Community & Environment in Rural America (CERA)
Challenged by a history of cycles of economic boom and bust, rural America is today confronted by globalization, resource depletion, changing demographics, new land use patterns, rising energy costs, and climate change. Carsey’s interdisciplinary CERA program uses over 10,000 household interviews from the UNH Survey Center to build knowledge of the socio-economic conditions, natural resource changes, and policy opportunities to sustain rural communities and ecosystems. The work includes solid, active partnerships with community development practitioners and community foundations across rural America.