R Finnigan
Biographic Data
| ID | 33806 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Finnigan |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Finnigan |
| SIGNATURE | FINNIGAN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Davis |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8922-4494 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 463 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Role of Single Motherhood in America's High Child Poverty
Many claim a high prevalence of single motherhood plays a significant role in America's high child poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we compare the “prevalences and penalties” for child poverty across 30 rich democracies and within the United States over time (1979–2019). Several descriptive patterns contradict the importance of single motherhood. The U.S. prevalence of single motherhood is cross-nationally moderate and typical and is h…
Self-reported impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely substantially compounded hardships for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to their already heightened health risks, shelter-in-place orders and recommended physical distancing have constrained available services. Though people experiencing homelessness have surely also been impacted economically, the extent of these impacts remains unclear. This study documents self-reported disease and economic impacts…
Policy Regulation of Precarious Work Schedules and Bottom-Up Enforcement: An Evaluation of State Reporting Pay Policies
Precarious work schedules, including last-minute cuts to workers’ shifts, undermine well-being for millions of workers and their families in the United States. Drawing on dispute resolution theories and prior research on complaint-driven enforcement of labor regulations, this study evaluates whether and how labor regulations can moderate this precarity. In eight states and Washington, DC, “reporting pay” policies require employers to pay workers …
The Relationship between Single Motherhood, Employment, and Poverty: Reply to Moullin and Harkness
The Growth and Shifting Spatial Distribution of Tent Encampments in Oakland, California
Tent encampments have become an especially common form of homelessness in West Coast cities like Oakland, California, where the number of people living in tent encampments increased by 130 percent between 2017 and 2019. Living in tent encampments provides residents both benefits and risks, depending on the encampments' location, size, and stability. Using data from Google Street Views, I document the growth and spatial dynamics of tent encampment…
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 47 No. 1
Welfare participation has been a longstanding issue of public debate for 50 years but remains largely understudied in welfare literature.The purpose of this research is to challenge the flawed assumptions of welfare participation by examining the varying spatial inequalities that influence U.S. welfare participation rates among eligible poor.This comparative analysis uses spatial inequality theory to examine welfareto-work participation rates in …
The Inheritance of Race Revisited: Childhood Wealth and Income and Black–White Disadvantages in Adult Life Chances
Vast racial inequalities continue to prevail across the United States and are closely linked to economic resources. One particularly prominent argument contends that childhood wealth accounts for black–white (BW) disadvantages in life chances. This article analyzes how much childhood wealth and childhood income mediate BW disadvantages in adult life chances with Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Cross-National Equivalent File data on children fr…
Rainbow-Collar Jobs? Occupational Segregation by Sexual Orientation in the United States
Lesbian and gay workers hold different occupations than straight workers, partly reflecting lesbian and gay workers' tendency to avoid same-gender-dominated occupations. Previous studies have grappled with significant data limitations, obscuring patterns for bisexual workers and potentially biasing estimates of occupational segregation by sexual orientation. In this study the author addresses these limitations using large-scale, nationally repres…
Rights for Same-Sex Couples and Public Attitudes Toward Gays and Lesbians in Europe
This article investigates how changes in same-sex rights affect attitudes toward homosexuality. We argue that different same-sex relationship policies vary in their impact. Whereas registered partnership laws construct a distinct target population that receives new benefits, marriage equality sends an unambiguously positive signal and reduces the perceived group difference through inclusion into existing rights. As a consequence, marriage equalit…
Past Due: Combinations of Utility and Housing Hardship in the United States
Millions of households in the United States are forced to juggle different basic needs. Housing and utility costs consume the majority of many households' monthly incomes. Consequences for missed payments include large fees, utility shutoffs, and evictions. Either hardship puts households at risk of losing adequate shelter. This study examines the prevalence and persistence of different combinations of housing and/or utility hardship using nation…
Working 9 to 5? Union Membership and Work Hours and Schedules
Millions of workers in the United States experience volatile weekly working hours and nonstandard shift work, particularly following the Great Recession. These aspects of work schedules bring greater economic insecurity and work-life conflict, particularly for low-wage workers. In the absence of strong and widespread policies regulating work hours in the United States, labor unions may significantly limit varying hours and nonstandard shifts. How…
Poverty, Material Hardship, and Mental Health among Workers in Three Front-Line Service Occupations
Many studies document links between income poverty, material hardship, and mental health; however, we know less about the mental health consequences of within-person changes in income poverty and material hardship, particularly for low-income workers. The authors examine these relationships with longitudinal data from a sample of frontline service workers interviewed in two cities (one each in the United States and Canada). Mixed-effects regressi…
Varying weekly work hours and earnings instability in the Great Recession
Rethinking the Risks of Poverty: A Framework for Analyzing Prevalences and Penalties
This article develops a framework for analyzing the risks of poverty in terms of prevalences (share of the population with a risk) and penalties (increased probability of poverty associated with a risk). A comparison of the four major risks (low education, single motherhood, young headship, and unemployment) across 29 rich democracies reveals there is greater variation in penalties than prevalences. The United States has high poverty partly becau…
Racial and ethnic stratification in the relationship between homeownership and self-rated health
Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Social Policy
There has been great interest in the relationship between immigration and the welfare state in recent years, and particularly since Alesina and Glaeser's (2004) influential work. Following literatures on solidarity and fractionalization, race in the U.S. welfare state, and anti-immigrant sentiments, many contend that immigration undermines public support for social policy. This study analyzes three measures of immigration and six welfare attitude…
When Unionization Disappears: State-Level Unionization and Working Poverty in the United States
Although the working poor are a much larger population than the unemployed poor, U.S. poverty research devotes much more attention to joblessness than to working poverty. Research that does exist on working poverty concentrates on demographics and economic performance and neglects institutions. Building on literatures on comparative institutions, unionization, and states as polities, we examine the influence of a potentially important labor marke…
Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Social Policy
There has been great interest in the relationship between immigration and the welfare state in recent years, and particularly since Alesina and Glaeser's (2004) influential work. Following literatures on solidarity and fractionalization, race in the U.S. welfare state, and anti-immigrant sentiments, many contend that immigration undermines public support for social policy. This study analyzes three measures of immigration and six welfare attitude…
When Unionization Disappears: State-Level Unionization and Working Poverty in the United States
Although the working poor are a much larger population than the unemployed poor, U.S. poverty research devotes much more attention to joblessness than to working poverty. Research that does exist on working poverty concentrates on demographics and economic performance and neglects institutions. Building on literatures on comparative institutions, unionization, and states as polities, we examine the influence of a potentially important labor marke…
Rethinking the Risks of Poverty: A Framework for Analyzing Prevalences and Penalties
This article develops a framework for analyzing the risks of poverty in terms of prevalences (share of the population with a risk) and penalties (increased probability of poverty associated with a risk). A comparison of the four major risks (low education, single motherhood, young headship, and unemployment) across 29 rich democracies reveals there is greater variation in penalties than prevalences. The United States has high poverty partly becau…
Rights for Same-Sex Couples and Public Attitudes Toward Gays and Lesbians in Europe
This article investigates how changes in same-sex rights affect attitudes toward homosexuality. We argue that different same-sex relationship policies vary in their impact. Whereas registered partnership laws construct a distinct target population that receives new benefits, marriage equality sends an unambiguously positive signal and reduces the perceived group difference through inclusion into existing rights. As a consequence, marriage equalit…
Past Due: Combinations of Utility and Housing Hardship in the United States
Millions of households in the United States are forced to juggle different basic needs. Housing and utility costs consume the majority of many households' monthly incomes. Consequences for missed payments include large fees, utility shutoffs, and evictions. Either hardship puts households at risk of losing adequate shelter. This study examines the prevalence and persistence of different combinations of housing and/or utility hardship using nation…
Racial and ethnic stratification in the relationship between homeownership and self-rated health
Varying weekly work hours and earnings instability in the Great Recession
Rainbow-Collar Jobs? Occupational Segregation by Sexual Orientation in the United States
Lesbian and gay workers hold different occupations than straight workers, partly reflecting lesbian and gay workers' tendency to avoid same-gender-dominated occupations. Previous studies have grappled with significant data limitations, obscuring patterns for bisexual workers and potentially biasing estimates of occupational segregation by sexual orientation. In this study the author addresses these limitations using large-scale, nationally repres…
The Growth and Shifting Spatial Distribution of Tent Encampments in Oakland, California
Tent encampments have become an especially common form of homelessness in West Coast cities like Oakland, California, where the number of people living in tent encampments increased by 130 percent between 2017 and 2019. Living in tent encampments provides residents both benefits and risks, depending on the encampments' location, size, and stability. Using data from Google Street Views, I document the growth and spatial dynamics of tent encampment…
The Inheritance of Race Revisited: Childhood Wealth and Income and Black–White Disadvantages in Adult Life Chances
Vast racial inequalities continue to prevail across the United States and are closely linked to economic resources. One particularly prominent argument contends that childhood wealth accounts for black–white (BW) disadvantages in life chances. This article analyzes how much childhood wealth and childhood income mediate BW disadvantages in adult life chances with Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Cross-National Equivalent File data on children fr…
Poverty, Material Hardship, and Mental Health among Workers in Three Front-Line Service Occupations
Many studies document links between income poverty, material hardship, and mental health; however, we know less about the mental health consequences of within-person changes in income poverty and material hardship, particularly for low-income workers. The authors examine these relationships with longitudinal data from a sample of frontline service workers interviewed in two cities (one each in the United States and Canada). Mixed-effects regressi…
The Role of Single Motherhood in America's High Child Poverty
Many claim a high prevalence of single motherhood plays a significant role in America's high child poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we compare the “prevalences and penalties” for child poverty across 30 rich democracies and within the United States over time (1979–2019). Several descriptive patterns contradict the importance of single motherhood. The U.S. prevalence of single motherhood is cross-nationally moderate and typical and is h…
When Unionization Disappears: State-Level Unionization and Working Poverty in the United States
Although the working poor are a much larger population than the unemployed poor, U.S. poverty research devotes much more attention to joblessness than to working poverty. Research that does exist on working poverty concentrates on demographics and economic performance and neglects institutions. Building on literatures on comparative institutions, unionization, and states as polities, we examine the influence of a potentially important labor marke…
Racial and ethnic stratification in the relationship between homeownership and self-rated health
Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Social Policy
There has been great interest in the relationship between immigration and the welfare state in recent years, and particularly since Alesina and Glaeser's (2004) influential work. Following literatures on solidarity and fractionalization, race in the U.S. welfare state, and anti-immigrant sentiments, many contend that immigration undermines public support for social policy. This study analyzes three measures of immigration and six welfare attitude…
Rethinking the Risks of Poverty: A Framework for Analyzing Prevalences and Penalties
This article develops a framework for analyzing the risks of poverty in terms of prevalences (share of the population with a risk) and penalties (increased probability of poverty associated with a risk). A comparison of the four major risks (low education, single motherhood, young headship, and unemployment) across 29 rich democracies reveals there is greater variation in penalties than prevalences. The United States has high poverty partly becau…
Working 9 to 5? Union Membership and Work Hours and Schedules
Millions of workers in the United States experience volatile weekly working hours and nonstandard shift work, particularly following the Great Recession. These aspects of work schedules bring greater economic insecurity and work-life conflict, particularly for low-wage workers. In the absence of strong and widespread policies regulating work hours in the United States, labor unions may significantly limit varying hours and nonstandard shifts. How…
Poverty, Material Hardship, and Mental Health among Workers in Three Front-Line Service Occupations
Many studies document links between income poverty, material hardship, and mental health; however, we know less about the mental health consequences of within-person changes in income poverty and material hardship, particularly for low-income workers. The authors examine these relationships with longitudinal data from a sample of frontline service workers interviewed in two cities (one each in the United States and Canada). Mixed-effects regressi…
Varying weekly work hours and earnings instability in the Great Recession
Rights for Same-Sex Couples and Public Attitudes Toward Gays and Lesbians in Europe
This article investigates how changes in same-sex rights affect attitudes toward homosexuality. We argue that different same-sex relationship policies vary in their impact. Whereas registered partnership laws construct a distinct target population that receives new benefits, marriage equality sends an unambiguously positive signal and reduces the perceived group difference through inclusion into existing rights. As a consequence, marriage equalit…
Past Due: Combinations of Utility and Housing Hardship in the United States
Millions of households in the United States are forced to juggle different basic needs. Housing and utility costs consume the majority of many households' monthly incomes. Consequences for missed payments include large fees, utility shutoffs, and evictions. Either hardship puts households at risk of losing adequate shelter. This study examines the prevalence and persistence of different combinations of housing and/or utility hardship using nation…
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 47 No. 1
Welfare participation has been a longstanding issue of public debate for 50 years but remains largely understudied in welfare literature.The purpose of this research is to challenge the flawed assumptions of welfare participation by examining the varying spatial inequalities that influence U.S. welfare participation rates among eligible poor.This comparative analysis uses spatial inequality theory to examine welfareto-work participation rates in …
The Inheritance of Race Revisited: Childhood Wealth and Income and Black–White Disadvantages in Adult Life Chances
Vast racial inequalities continue to prevail across the United States and are closely linked to economic resources. One particularly prominent argument contends that childhood wealth accounts for black–white (BW) disadvantages in life chances. This article analyzes how much childhood wealth and childhood income mediate BW disadvantages in adult life chances with Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Cross-National Equivalent File data on children fr…
Rainbow-Collar Jobs? Occupational Segregation by Sexual Orientation in the United States
Lesbian and gay workers hold different occupations than straight workers, partly reflecting lesbian and gay workers' tendency to avoid same-gender-dominated occupations. Previous studies have grappled with significant data limitations, obscuring patterns for bisexual workers and potentially biasing estimates of occupational segregation by sexual orientation. In this study the author addresses these limitations using large-scale, nationally repres…
Policy Regulation of Precarious Work Schedules and Bottom-Up Enforcement: An Evaluation of State Reporting Pay Policies
Precarious work schedules, including last-minute cuts to workers’ shifts, undermine well-being for millions of workers and their families in the United States. Drawing on dispute resolution theories and prior research on complaint-driven enforcement of labor regulations, this study evaluates whether and how labor regulations can moderate this precarity. In eight states and Washington, DC, “reporting pay” policies require employers to pay workers …
The Relationship between Single Motherhood, Employment, and Poverty: Reply to Moullin and Harkness
The Growth and Shifting Spatial Distribution of Tent Encampments in Oakland, California
Tent encampments have become an especially common form of homelessness in West Coast cities like Oakland, California, where the number of people living in tent encampments increased by 130 percent between 2017 and 2019. Living in tent encampments provides residents both benefits and risks, depending on the encampments' location, size, and stability. Using data from Google Street Views, I document the growth and spatial dynamics of tent encampment…
Self-reported impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely substantially compounded hardships for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to their already heightened health risks, shelter-in-place orders and recommended physical distancing have constrained available services. Though people experiencing homelessness have surely also been impacted economically, the extent of these impacts remains unclear. This study documents self-reported disease and economic impacts…
The Role of Single Motherhood in America's High Child Poverty
Many claim a high prevalence of single motherhood plays a significant role in America's high child poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we compare the “prevalences and penalties” for child poverty across 30 rich democracies and within the United States over time (1979–2019). Several descriptive patterns contradict the importance of single motherhood. The U.S. prevalence of single motherhood is cross-nationally moderate and typical and is h…
Economics (15 works) · Demographic economics (13 works) · Economic growth (11 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Poverty (6 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (6 works) · Labour economics (5 works)