Podcasts about columbia population research center

Vice President of the Center for Budget Policy Priorities is Peggy Bailey, Robin Hood and Columbia Population Research Center, Alex Nowrasteh is an analyst with eh libertarian Cato Institute

In this episode I'd like to explore the impacts of the precautionary principle in public policy.  Many people think that the precautionary principle is the safest way forward. We shouldn't use a tool until we're sure that it won't harm us. This just makes sense, doesn't it? The application of the precautionary principle in European energy policy, for example, has lead to the shut down of Germany's nuclear fleet, strong labelling laws for GMO products, and many other decisions of which I am not yet aware. Today I'll be interviewing an economist who has a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the environment, health, and labor economics to get an expert opinion on this topic. I came across his insightful work as references in a Freakonomics podcast episode titled, “nuclear energy isn't perfect. Is it good enough?'. Matthew Neidell is an economics professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.  He is also a faculty member with the Earth Institute and the Columbia Population Research Center. Neidell received his PhD in economics from UCLA and has performed policy work for various organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Institute of Medicine, Rockefeller Foundation, and World Bank He specializes in environmental, health, and labor economics, applying the latest empirical methods to examine the relationship between the environment and a wide range of measures of well-being, including worker productivity and human capital, and how human behavior affects these relationships. Support more penetrating public policy perspectives at patron.podbean.com/therationalview Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #precautionaryprinciple #nuclearpower #publicpolicy #environment #energytransition #greenenergy #atomicenergy

Today's discussion features Courtney D. Cogburn and Jeremy Bailenson. Courtney is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University, Courtney is on the faculty of the Columbia Population Research Center and a faculty affiliate of the Center on African American Politics and Society and the Data Institute. Courtney's work focuses on the ways that society characterizes and measures racism, the effects of cultural racism in media, as well as the effects of racism on cultural inequalities in health. Jeremy Bailenson is a Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, and is also the Founding Director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Jeremy studies the psychology of Virtual and Augmented Reality, specifically how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others. Jeremy's work predominantly focuses on important social and behavioral issues including climate change, homelessness, and now, racism.Courtney and Jeremy join the broadcast to talk about their collaboration on "1000 Cut Journey" an immersive virtual reality experience, that allows participants of the experience, to become Michael Sterling, a fictional black male character, as he encounters racism as a young child, an adolescent, and a young adult. The world premier of the experience was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival Virtual Arcade in 2018, as well as at the New Orleans Film Festival Cinema Reset in 2018.Items discussed:-how VR can be used as a lever on very difficult problems by merging technology and very carefully constructed narratives based on empirical data-the transdisciplinary approach to merging different studies of research and thought-the specific power of virtual reality, the true nature of VR as an experience that you can walk away with, and the implications of these experiences to understanding, visualizing, and creating new perspective can be used to change everything from policing to policy-Learnings from working on the project, and future uses of virtual reality to bridge the gaps of understanding of the many complexities of racism, while motivating audiences to act on racism and racial injustices.Thank you for listening!Full Simply Tech LIVE Video Broadcast: https://youtu.be/EQKNkSbd3ikWays to contact Courtney and Jeremy:Courtney D. Cogburn: https://socialwork.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty/full-time/courtney-d-cogburn/Jeremy Bailenson: https://comm.stanford.edu/faculty-bailenson/Resources:1000 Cut Journey trailer: https://youtu.be/rA6fOMSx2ykExperiencing Racism in VR | Courtney D. Cogburn, PHD | TEDxRVA: https://youtu.be/M7T_u4hpiSEInfinite Reality: The Dawn of the Virtual Revolution with Jeremy Bailenson: https://youtu.be/1jbwxR8bCb4Additional Work Mentioned:Albert "Skip" Rizzo: https://ict.usc.edu/profile/albert-skip-rizzo/Fernanda Herrera: https://iriss.stanford.edu/people/fernanda-herrera--------------------------------Interested in starting your own podcast? Some candid advice here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-start-podcast-3-step-gono-go-beginners-guide-derek-russellLearn more about the Data Binge Podcast at www.thedatabinge.comConnect with Derek:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekwesleyrussell/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN1c5mzapLZ55ciPgngqRMg/featuredInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drussnetwork/Twitter: https://twitter.com/drussnetworkMedium: https://medium.com/@derekwesleyrussellEmail: derek@thedatabinge.com

In recent years, college campuses have come to the forefront of national conversations about sexual assault: its causes, the stigma survivors endure when they report, the consequences (or lack thereof) perpetrators face if exposed. How can we make college campuses safer so that sexual assault isn’t such a prevalent danger? How can external social pressures even before college predispose kids to commit assault? How can parents start dialogues with their children to teach them what constitutes healthy sexual behavior? And how can we change high school sex education in ways that make assaults less likely, and people’s sexual lives more fulfilling? In SEXUAL CITIZENS: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus [W.W. Norton & Company; January 14, 2020; $27.95 hardcover], Columbia professors Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan answer these questions. The book is rich with the testimonies of over 150 Columbia students who participated in the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT). Startling in their frankness and revelations, these experiences encompass explicit acts of violent rape and more subtle violations of consent that many people may not realize is assault, set in comparison to consensual sexual experiences that range from sweet and caring to startlingly impersonal and objectifying. Hirsch and Khan’s goal, in sharing these stories, is not to make moral judgments or decide what the ideal legal ramifications of assault should be. Their approach is steeped in empathy, seeking to elucidate the social roots of sexual assault, approaching it as a public health problem, and to explain it by setting out a broader understanding of how sex is organized and what it means to young people in college. They put forth powerful new concepts to help explain the forces in young people’s sexual lives: sexual projects (the various motives college students have for pursuing sex), sexual citizenship (the possession of one’s sexual agency, and the respect for another’s), and sexual geographies (the landscapes, both physical and social, that shape the power dynamics and contexts of sex). Hirsch and Khan have a remarkable eye for nuance—at every point in their exploration of campus culture they identify the ways race, class, age, and sexuality can intersect with gender to influence who is most at risk and who is most likely to commit offenses. In the chapter “The Toxic Campus Brew,” for example, Hirsch and Khan focus on the role alcohol plays in hookup culture, observing the way drinking laws often force students to enter spaces controlled by older men if they want alcohol—especially wealthy men from historically white fraternities. Grounded in the intimate, often painful accounts of the human beings at its center, SEXUAL CITIZENS is a bold, comprehensive analysis of a social ecosystem where sexual assault is a regular feature. Eradicating this endemic problem in college life must begin with empowering teachers, policy makers, parents, and students. This text will be an essential impetus and resource for such progress.

Podcast Description “There’s a disconnect between beliefs and behavior. And there’s an investment in the symbolism of one’s beliefs and translating that as if it represents behavior when it doesn’t.” Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn is an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and faculty of the Columbia Population Research Center. She employs a transdisciplinary research strategy to improve the characterization and measurement of racism and in examining the role of racism in the production of racial inequities in health. Dr. Cogburn’s work also explores the potential of media and technology in eradicating racism and eliminating racial inequities in health. She is the lead creator of 1000 Cut Journey, an immersive virtual reality experience of racism that premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival developed in collaboration with Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford University. Dr. Cogburn is developing additional projects attempting to leverage emerging technologies to tackle issues of structural and cultural racism. Dr. Cogburn completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University in the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar Program and at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in Education and Psychology, and MSW from the University of Michigan and her BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia. Transcription 00:30 Kim Crayton: Hello, everyone. And welcome to today's episode of the #CauseAScene Podcast. I have someone on that I do not know. I actually saw some tweets about a talk they did at All Tech is Human, and I immediately reached out to Dr. Courtney Cogburn to come on the show and talk about what she was disrupting that audience with. So, Dr. Cogburn could you please introduce yourself to the audience? Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn: Hi, I'm Dr. Courtney Cockburn. I'm an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. KC: We always start with two questions: Why is it important to cause a scene? And how are you causing a scene? 01:16 CDC: I think it's important to cause a scene, because it suggests that you're awake and paying attention and that there's meaning to your voice and presence in the world. So, are you paying attention? Do you see any of the problems before our eyes? And do you find value in yourself enough to do something about it? And so I think inherently bad intersection results in causing a scene. How am I causing a scene? You know, I'm a little bit irreverent in general. I do what I want to do. And that's not common for a tenure-track professor at, you know, an elite white institution. But it's absolutely the way that I approach my work. A phrase I've been using more and more lately that I like—because I got it from Game of Thrones—there's a line—I don't know if you watch Game of Thrones—but there's a line where one of the characters says, "We don't have time for this. The world is ending and we need to make some choices or some decisions." And so I used it a lot lately because we don't have time for pontificating and dancing around issues, or really even selfishly focusing only on our own careers and whether we get tenure or not, or whether we get promoted or not. And while those things are important, I think what we're doing for the world and for people and communities around us and how we're leaving the world, given these really existential pressing issues is part of what's important to me. So, for me specifically, that focuses on issues of racism and the various spaces in which racism shows up, which is every space. 03:13 KC: All right, So, can you tell us...let's just start where I started. What was your talk at All Tech is Human about? CDC: So in that talk—it was a lightning talk—I had five minutes to make a point. KC: Wow! OK, so... wow! CDC: And I'm thinking, just like, we don't have time for this. KC: Exactly! 03:37 CDC: And so my talk was about being antiracist in tech.

Since the beginning of China’s reform era in 1978, the country’s urban population has grown by 40%, with 813 million people now living in its cities. That number is predicted to reach one billion by 2030, continuing the unprecedented migration from rural to urban areas. Dr. Weiping Wu of Columbia University provides insight into the complicated process of China’s urbanization, from its hukou registration system to the ever-evolving definition of what constitutes a city, and contrasts the United States’ urban development to China’s.   Weiping Wu is professor of urban planning at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and director of the M.S. Urban Planning program. She is also on the faculty of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Columbia Population Research Center. Before joining Columbia in 2016, she was professor and chair in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Dr. Wu is a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program.   Trained in architecture and urban planning, Dr. Wu has focused her research and teaching on understanding urban dynamics in developing countries – in general and China, in particular. She is an internationally acclaimed urban and planning scholar working on global urbanization with a specific expertise in issues of migration, housing, and infrastructure of Chinese cities. Her publications include eight books, as well as many articles in top international journals. Dr. Wu’s published works have gained an increasing public presence, particularly her recent book, The Chinese City (Routledge, 2012). It offers a critical understanding of China’s urbanization, exploring how the complexity of Chinese cities both conforms to and defies conventional urban theories and experiences of cities elsewhere around the world.  

Courtney Cogburn: Virtual Reality to Improve Race Relations (Ep. 132) Columbia University School of Social Work Professor Courtney Cogburn joined Joe Miller to discuss her work with virtual reality to improve race relations. Bio Courtney Cogburn (@CourtneyCogburn) is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and a Faculty Affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center. Her research integrates principles and methodologies across psychology, stress physiology and social epidemiology to investigate relationships between racism-related stress and racial health disparities across the life course. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her current research projects examine: the effects of cultural racism in the media on physiological, psychological and behavioral stress reactivity and moderating effects of cognitive appraisal processes; the role of structural racism in producing disease risk; and chronic psychosocial stress exposure and related implications for understanding Black/White disparities in cardiovascular health and disease between early and late adulthood. At the end of 2014, Dr. Cogburn received an award from the Provost’s Grants Program for Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University for a project titled “Black Face to Ferguson: A Mixed Methodological Examination of Media Racism, Media Activism and Health.” In addition to her academic research, Dr. Cogburn works with the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and is a senior advisor at the International Center Advocates Against Discrimination in NYC to educate and build community activism around issues of racism and health. Before coming to Columbia in July 2014, Dr. Cogburn was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia, MSW from the University of Michigan School of Social Work and PhD in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan. Resources Columbia School of Social Work Experiencing Racism in VR by Courtney Cogburn (Ted Talk) The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss News Roundup Facebook makes moves to contain Cambridge Analytica fallout Facebook has made several moves to contain the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and salvage what remains of its integrity and public image. The company announced that it will now fact-check political photos and videos, allow you to see the personal data they have on you, and limit the sharing of your personal information with data brokers. Meanwhile, on the legal front, Missouri’s Republican Attorney General has opened an investigation into Facebook’s data collection practices. Attorney General Josh Hawley wants to know about every instance in which Facebook shared user data with political entities, the rates they paid and whether users were notified.  In addition, Facebook will not provide evidence or testify before a U.K. parliamentary committee investigating Facebook’s use of user data. However, he will testify before Congress, and Sunny Bonnell reports in Inc. that it could happen as soon as April 10th. In addition, housing groups are suing Facebook for allowing real estate advertisers to discriminate against mothers, the disabled and minorities, according to Jordan Pearson in Motherboard. And Ali Breland reported on a memo leaked from 2016 written by Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth suggesting the company’s expansion is justified even if it costs lives from bullying or a terrorist attack. Sinclair, which is in the process of buying Tribune Media, has anchors read same script Sinclair Broadcasting, the little-known media company that’s in the process of buying Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, has been accused of being a mouthpiece for conservative viewpoints. Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been seen by many to have paved the way for Sinclair by relaxing longstanding media ownership rules. Now, Deadspin has put together a video showing dozens of anchors on tv stations owned by Sinclair reciting the exact same script making the same claims about fake news that the Trump administration has been making. Sinclair now reaches 2 out of every 5 American homes, with 193 stations concentrated in midsize markets. The merger with Tribune Media would bring that number up to 236, including stations in New York City and Chicago, if Sinclair doesn’t divest some of the stations.  Emily Stewart reports in Vox. In a Tweet, President Trump defended Sinclair.  Saks/Lord & Taylor hacked  Vindu Goel and Rachel Abrams report for the New York Times that a well-known band of cybercriminals hacked the credit and debit card numbers of some 5 million Saks and Lord & Taylor customers. The parent company of the two department stores, Hudson’s Bay Company, said in  a statement that the company has identified the issue, is taking steps to contain it, and will keep the public informed. Trump attacks Amazon Trump attacked Amazon on twitter last week, saying the company should be regulated, which led to a dip in the company’s stock prices. But policy experts say that antitrust action against Amazon is a long shot. Laura Stevens reports in the Wall Street Journal. City of Atlanta hit by cyberattack Eight thousand employees of the City of Atlanta had to shut down their computers last week. The reason? A ransomware attack. The attackers demanded $51,000 to unscramble government processes usually handled online. While the attack did not affect major systems like wastewater treatment and 911 calls, police officers had to write tickets by hand, none of Atlanta’s 6 million residents could apply for city jobs, and the courts could not validate warrants. Nicole Perlroth and Aland Blinder report in the New York Times. FCC greenlights SpaceX’s satellite internet service The FCC has given the green light to SpaceX’s satellite broadband internet service. The company aims to deploy thousands of small satellites to reach underserved areas, such as rural communities, at fiber-like speeds. Samanta Masunaga reports in the LA Times.   Tumblr cancels 84 accounts tied to Russia Morgan Chalfant reports in the Hill that Tumblr took down 84 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm at the center of a federal investigation into the Russian propaganda campaign that swayed the 2016 presidential election. Last month DOJ Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities connected to the Internet Research Agency. Trump administration to look at social media accounts for visas The Trump administration announced that it is planning to review the social media accounts of people applying for visas to enter the U.S. People entering the U.S. from countries with visa-free status, like the UK, Canada, France, and Germany, won’t be subjected to the additional vetting. But individuals seeking entry visas into the U.S. from countries like India, China and Mexico would need to turn over their social media information. The BBC has the story. But Joe Uchill and Stef W. Kight reported for Axios that ICE already uses Facebook data – not to track immigrants, though, but to track child predators. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear challenges to the FCC’s net neutrality order Finally, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will now hear the consolidated appeals of the FCC’s December order to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules. The Ninth Circuit had won the lottery to hear the case, but Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request to move the cases to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the appeals of both the 2011 rules and the 2015 rules, which it had upheld. John Eggerton reports in Broadcasting and Cable.

Over the last three and a half decades, China’s rise has largely been underpinned by two great transitions: from socialism to capitalism, and from agriculture to industry. The workplace and the institutions that govern it have served as the critical link that enabled these transitions to take place. As these processes continue, the interests of the central government and Chinese workers have converged upon improved working conditions and formalization of employment. Workers have naturally sought greater security in their new urban homes, and China’s leaders have seen the long-term strategic utility of better labor laws as the country moves away from reliance on low cost, low-tech manufacturing. Even so, there remains a wide gap between what is promised by the central authorities, and what is delivered on the factory floor. How the Chinese government confronts this complex policy landscape is the central question of political science professor and China expert Mary Gallagher’s new book: Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State. In her book, Dr. Gallagher elucidates the aims and trajectory of Chinese labor law, as well as what the implications are for China’s workers. She joined the National Committee on December 12, 2017, for a discussion of her book and new developments in China’s labor laws and workplace relations. The conversation was moderated by Qin Gao, professor of social policy at the Columbia School of Social Work Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan where she is also the director of the Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. She is the author and editor of several books, including Contagious Capitalism:  Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton 2005); Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China (Cambridge 2011); From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization:  Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China (Cornell 2011); and Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (Cambridge 2010).  Qin Gao, PhD, is professor of social policy and social work at Columbia University School of Social Work and founding director of China Center for Social Policy. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also an academic board member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

Over the last three and a half decades, China’s rise has largely been underpinned by two great transitions: from socialism to capitalism, and from agriculture to industry. The workplace and the institutions that govern it have served as the critical link that enabled these transitions to take place. As these processes continue, the interests of the central government and Chinese workers have converged upon improved working conditions and formalization of employment. Workers have naturally sought greater security in their new urban homes, and China’s leaders have seen the long-term strategic utility of better labor laws as the country moves away from reliance on low cost, low-tech manufacturing. Even so, there remains a wide gap between what is promised by the central authorities, and what is delivered on the factory floor.   How the Chinese government confronts this complex policy landscape is the central question of political science professor and China expert Mary Gallagher’s new book: Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State. In her book, Dr. Gallagher elucidates the aims and trajectory of Chinese labor law, as well as what the implications are for China’s workers. She joined the National Committee on December 12, 2017, for a discussion of her book and new developments in China’s labor laws and workplace relations. The conversation was moderated by Qin Gao, professor of social policy at the Columbia School of Social Work   Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan where she is also the director of the Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. She is the author and editor of several books, including Contagious Capitalism:  Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton 2005); Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China (Cambridge 2011); From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization:  Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China (Cornell 2011); and Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies (Cambridge 2010).  Qin Gao, PhD, is professor of social policy and social work at Columbia University School of Social Work and founding director of China Center for Social Policy. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also an academic board member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

Even as the China’s economic reforms in the 1980s and 90s laid the foundation for it to become an economic powerhouse, increasingly wide gaps opened up between rich and poor, leaving behind those ill equipped to compete in a market economy. The massive changes taking place were also reflected in the uneven distribution of social welfare benefits, which tended to accrue to those best positioned to succeed under the new system. In 1993, Shanghai implemented a minimum livelihood guarantee or dibao, an anti-poverty safety net. Since then, the program has expanded throughout China and is centrally regulated. Today, it serves as the country’s primary social insurance program. Even though it is the largest welfare program in the world, there has been little English-language research evaluating the effectiveness of the dibao system. In her new book, Welfare, Work, and Poverty: Social Assistance in China, Columbia University professor and expert on low-income families in China Qin Gao attempts to rectify this deficiency by answering key questions about the program’s efficacy.   Dr. Gao examines how successful the dibao system has been at alleviating poverty, as well as patterns of behavior and the sense of well-being among dibao recipients. Her work not only deepens our understanding of entitlements in China, but also adds the Chinese case as a comparative example to the growing body of literature looking at welfare systems around the world. On May 10, 2017, Dr. Gao joined the National Committee in New York City for a discussion of her book, the development and expansion of the dibao system, as well as its policy implications for China and other countries. The conversation was moderated by Professor Mark Frazier, director of the India China Institute at The New School. Qin Gao is professor of social policy and social work at the Columbia University School of Social Work and director of the newly established China Center for Social Policy at the school. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also an academic board member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and is a Public Intellectuals Program fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Dr. Gao’s research examines poverty, income inequality, and social welfare policies in China and their cross-national comparisons. Dr. Gao also studies gender inequality and social protection for rural-to-urban migrants in China. She has published widely in leading interdisciplinary journals such as The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Social Policy, Review of Income and Wealth, Social Service Review, and World Development. Mark W. Frazier is professor of politics at the New School for Social Research, and academic director of the India China Institute at The New School. His recent research compares China and India in terms of how each has coped with development challenges related to inequality and urbanization, historically and in the present. He is the author of Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (Cornell University Press 2010) and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (Cambridge University Press 2002). He has authored op-ed pieces and essays for The New York Times, Daedalus, The Diplomat, and World Politics Review. Dr. Frazier is also a fellow of the National Committee's Public Intellectuals Program.

Even as the China’s economic reforms in the 1980s and 90s laid the foundation for it to become an economic powerhouse, increasingly wide gaps opened up between rich and poor, leaving behind those ill equipped to compete in a market economy. The massive changes taking place were also reflected in the uneven distribution of social welfare benefits, which tended to accrue to those best positioned to succeed under the new system. In 1993, Shanghai implemented a minimum livelihood guarantee or dibao, an anti-poverty safety net. Since then, the program has expanded throughout China and is centrally regulated. Today, it serves as the country’s primary social insurance program. Even though it is the largest welfare program in the world, there has been little English-language research evaluating the effectiveness of the dibao system. In her new book, Welfare, Work, and Poverty: Social Assistance in China, Columbia University professor and expert on low-income families in China Qin Gao attempts to rectify this deficiency by answering key questions about the program’s efficacy. Dr. Gao examines how successful the dibao system has been at alleviating poverty, as well as patterns of behavior and the sense of well-being among dibao recipients. Her work not only deepens our understanding of entitlements in China, but also adds the Chinese case as a comparative example to the growing body of literature looking at welfare systems around the world. On May 10, 2017, Dr. Gao joined the National Committee in New York City for a discussion of her book, the development and expansion of the dibao system, as well as its policy implications for China and other countries. The conversation is moderated by Professor Mark Frazier, director of the India China Institute at The New School.  Qin Gao is professor of social policy and social work at the Columbia University School of Social Work and director of the newly established China Center for Social Policy at the school. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also an academic board member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and is a Public Intellectuals Program fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Mark W. Frazier is professor of politics at the New School for Social Research, and academic director of the India China Institute at The New School.