Essential Reading
BOOKS
Assets and the Poor
Author(s): Michael Sherraden
Date: March 1991
Summary: In his seminal book Assets and the Poor, Sherraden proposes
a groundbreaking new approach to social policy for the poor: taking welfare
beyond income maintenance to asset building by creating a system of savings
incentives called Individual Development Accounts, or IDAs. Sherraden
begins by providing a critical analysis of federal welfare policy, welfare
theory, and reform debate. He notes that while asset accumulation is already
structured and subsidized for many non-poor households-primarily through
retirement accounts and homeownership in the form of generous tax benefits-the
poor do not have access to these incentives. Thus, two divergent policies
exist-asset accumulation to help the non-poor build wealth, and income
subsidies for the poor that help them to get by, but not to get ahead.
Sherraden's proposed IDAs would complement income maintenance efforts
for the poor by taking the form of matched saving accounts that could
be used for such asset building goals as obtaining a post-secondary education,
owning a home, starting a business, or saving for retirement. Since its
publication in 1991, Sherraden's ideas for asset building have spurred
the creation of IDA and other asset building initiatives around the country,
as well as local, state, and federal IDA legislation.
The Mystery of Capital
Author(s): Hernando DeSoto
Date: 2000
Summary: In his famous work, De Soto describes the obstacles developing
and post-communist countries face in espousing capitalism. These problems
have prevented low-income citizens from effectively rising out of poverty
and establishing wealth to provide their families with proper standards
of living. However, De Soto postulates that this is not because of a deficiency
of assets, but instead an effect of countries lacking an equitable, comprehensive,
and enforced property law system. The world’s poor hold a massive
amount of assets in the form of homes, property, business, and savings
yet cannot take advantage of them because they all remain within illegal
underground economies. Until their assets attain governmental recognition,
the poor will not be able to take advantage of their acquired capital
and generate new wealth. As developed countries have experienced in the
past, assets cannot be utilized without a strong, thorough infrastructure
to house them.
Assets for the Poor: The Benefits of Spreading Asset Ownership
Author(s): Thomas M. Shapiro and Edward N. Wolff, editors
Date: June 2001
Summary: This collection of research from the Ford Foundation Series on
Asset Building is the first full-scale investigation into the importance
of family wealth and the need for policies to encourage asset building
among the poor. The volume shows that the poor do make use of the assets
they have. Cash gifts-although small in size-are frequent within families
and often lead to such positive results as homebuying and debt reduction,
while tangible assets such as tools and cars help increase employment
prospects. It also shows how institutional mechanisms designed to encourage
acquisition of capital and property favor middle-class and high-income
families. For example, the aggregate value of home mortgage tax deductions
far outweighs the dollar amount of the subsidies provided by Section 8
rental vouchers and public housing. Banking definitions of creditworthiness
largely exclude minorities, and welfare rules have made it nearly impossible
for signle mothers to accumulate savings, let alone stocks or real estate.
Due to persistent residential segregation, even those minority families
who do own homes are often denied equal access to better schools and public
services. Assets for the Poor examines policies such as Individual
Development Account tax subsidies to reward savings among the poor, and
more liberal credit rules to make borrowing easier and less costly. The
contributors also offer thoughtful recommendations for bringing the poor
into mainstream savings institutions and warn against developing asset-building
policies at the expense of existing safety net programs. Assets for
the Poor challenges current thinking regarding poverty reduction policies
and proposes a major shift in the way we think about families and how
they can make a better life for themselves.
The Hidden Cost of Being African-American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
Author(s): Thomas Shapiro
Date: 2004
Summary: In this book, Shapiro uses a combination of in-depth interviews
and national survey data to show how racial inequality is transmitted
across generations. The author demonstrates how those families with private
wealth are able to advance form generation to generation, relocating to
safer communities with better schools and passing along the accompanying
advantages to their children. At the same time, those without significant
wealth remain trapped in communities that do not allow them to move up,
no matter how hard they work.
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ARTICLES/OP-EDS
Poverty
is More Than a Matter of Income
Author(s): Ray Boshara
Date: September 29, 2002
Summary: Last week, in an annual autumn ritual, the Census Bureau released
its latest statistics on poverty and income. After falling for four consecutive
years, the poverty rate rose to 11.7 percent in 2001. But this figure,
whether rising or declining, tells only part of the story about poverty
in America: It measures only income. For a more complete picture -- and
a more disheartening one -- it is necessary to measure the assets of the
poor as well.
Land
Rich and Dirt Poor: The Story of Indian Assets
Author(s): Rebecca Adamson
Date: 2003
Summary: American Indian tribes are the single largest private land holders
in the United States. For most people anywhere in today's world economy,
such assets or major property holdings equal wealth and money. Not so
for the American Indian and Alaska Native. Defying the economic canon
that assets and wealth are two sides of the same economic coin, today’s
Native Americans have the highest poverty rate and the highest unemployment
rate in the nation.1 They are the single poorest population in the United
States. It can be said, “tribes are land rich and dirt poor.”
For
Children, A Stake in the Future
Author(s): Congressman Harold Ford
Date: January 25, 2004
Summary: Imagine an America where a 13-year-old girl attending a struggling
public school logs on to the Internet or turns on CNBC every day to check
her stock portfolio before her parents come home from work. Sound far-fetched?
Not if you live in Britain, where Tony Blair's government has established
child trust funds for every newborn Briton, beginning with an initial
deposit of $400 to $800. The accounts grow with compound interest and
with tax-free contributions. When a child reaches 18, the money is hers.
Share
the Ownership
Author(s): Ray Boshara
Date: February 8, 2005
Summary: Perhaps a good way to begin debate on President Bush's bold and
commendable ideas for an "ownership society" would be to ask,
"Who owns America?" After all, if ownership policies further
concentrate the ownership of assets for those who already own a lot, while
doing little for those who own nothing, what's the point?
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RESEARCH PAPERS
Building
Assets: A Report on the Asset-Development and IDA Field
Author(s): Ray Boshara
Date: December 2001
Summary: This report serves as a compilation of the theory, rationale,
research, policy, and practice that makes up the asset-development and
IDA field. Summarizing where the field is and where it may be going, Boshara
aims to give researchers, policymakers, funders, practitioners, journalists,
advocates, and others the information they need to move asset building
forward in a variety of ways.
Sharing the Wealth:
Resident Ownership Mechanisms
Author(s): Heather McCulloch and Lisa Robinson
Date: 2001
Summary: McCulloch and Robinson examine a range of strategies and instruments
to increase opportunities for residents to become owners in the development
process-to be stockholders, not just stakeholders, in local economic activity.
This report explores opportunities for residents as active and vested
partners-with the private, public, and nonprofit sectors-in economic development
activities in their communities.
Saving
Performance in the American Dream Demonstration
Author(s): Mark Schreiner, Margaret Clancy, and Michael Sherraden
Date: October 2002
Summary: This publication details findings from the first systematic study
of Individual Development Account (IDA) programs. The study finds that
IDA programs can be successful in helping the poor save and accumulate
assets and outlines participant data such as average monthly deposits
and savings outcomes.
Asset
Building and the Escape from Poverty: A New Welfare Policy Debate
Author(s): Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Date: 2003
Summary: This OECD study, which stems from a learning conference on asset
building and Individual Development Accounts held by the Corporation for
Enterprise Development (CFED) and Social and Enterprise Development Innovations
(SEDI) in 2002, presents the theory behind asset building and then details
relevant policies and practices around the world. The author concludes
with several key questions that could prompt an international dialogue
on asset building as a poverty reduction strategy.
Policy
Options for Achieving an Ownership Society for All Americans
Author(s): Ray Boshara, Reid Cramer, and Leslie Parrish
Date: February 2005
Summary: This paper presents a menu of policy options for federal policymakers
that contribute to the overarching goals of promoting savings, encouraging
asset building, and constructing an inclusive ownership society.
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ONLINE RESOURCES
Assets
and Opportunity Scorecard
This Scorecard measures key parts of asset building policies and outcomes,
comparing them on a state-by-state basis.
Community-Wealth.org
This website serves as a clearinghouse of information on community wealth
and asset building activities. Community-Wealth.org is a project of the
Democracy Collaborative, an organization based at the University of Maryland
at College Park and run in collaboration with a consortium of 20 academic
centers nationwide. Some of the community wealth building topics covered
on the site include ESOPs, Community Land Trusts, CDCs, Cooperatives,
and IDAs. The site also explores municiple enterprises and other initiatives
run by the public sector.
Debt and Assets Clearinghouse
A one-stop resource for information on debt and assets and their
impact on economic security. The site covers a range of issues from credit
cards to payday loans to innovative asset-building programs.
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