Before becoming President of the Russell Sage Foundation in 2013, Sheldon H. Danziger was the Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Research Professor at the Population Studies Center, and Director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. He directed the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1983–1988.
Danziger’s research focuses on social welfare policies and on the effects of economic, demographic, and public policy changes on trends in poverty and inequality. His work includes an examination of how the 1996 welfare reform affected the work effort, family income, and material well-being of single mothers and of the impact of poverty on children and youth. In examining the roots of poverty in America, he has written, “Poverty remains high not because of a shortage of effective antipoverty options but because the public and policymakers have not made reducing poverty a priority.”
Three of Danziger’s books have been selected as Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics by Princeton University’s Industrial Relations Section: The Price of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood (co-edited with Cecilia Rouse, Russell Sage Foundation, 2007); Working and Poor: How Economic Conditions and Policy Changes Affect Low-Wage Workers (co-edited with Rebecca Blank and Robert Schoeni, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006); and America Unequal, (co-written with Peter Gottschalk, Harvard University Press and Russell Sage Foundation, 1995).
His other books include Detroit Divided (co-written with Reynolds Farley and Harry Holzer, Russell Sage Foundation, 2000), Securing the Future: Investing in Children From Birth to College (co-edited with Jane Waldfogel, Russell Sage Foundation, 2000) and Changing Poverty, Changing Policies (co-edited with Maria Cancian, Russell Sage Foundation, 2009).
Danziger has also launched the Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, a training and mentorship program for developing the careers of scholars from underrepresented groups. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow.
Induction Remarks:
Sheldon Danziger: “Economic growth on its own is no longer a sufficient antipoverty strategy”
