Institute for Research on Poverty

THE INSTITUTE FOR Research on Poverty (IRP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, university-based research center that aims to investigate the causes and consequences of poverty and social inequality in the United States. It was established in 1966 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, which was the body charged with reducing poverty in the country. The IRP is one of three area-based poverty research centers that are now managed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Faculty at the university conduct research at the IRP together with teaching, while external faculty can also conduct research through the center. Grants for specific projects are made through the center.

The IRP has a record of solid development in the 40 years since its inception and has been instrumental in designing and evaluating some of the major public policies and programs to reduce poverty. A particular competency has been developed in the center for the quantitative analysis of large data sets. The research agenda and source of sponsorship have varied over the years in line with differing ideologies of prevailing presidential administrations.

The IRP has sought to maintain academic levels of rigor over the years, irrespective of the stated or unstated opinions of governmental figures. The research agenda also changed in line with alterations in the demographics of the U.S. economy, for example by explicitly including a number of ethnic minority people who previously were not considered individually. A national competition in 1995 resulted in the receipt of a core grant from the ASPE and designation as a National [Page 552]Center, and this has provided more stability over the last decade. In 2004, Maria Cancian was appointed director of the center and has subsequently added to the range of research activities.

Activities currently include outreach work, provision of training, and sharing of information, in addition to core research work. The research agenda includes low-wage labor welfare, methodological issues in poverty research, regional analyses, child and family well-being, and welfare reform. Publications include research reports, books, policy briefs, and newsletters and similar items for a more general public.

At their best, university research centers are able to use their intimate local knowledge and contacts to obtain high-quality data that may then be set in the context of the most current thinking. The implications and lessons of the research may then be communicated with policymakers and other stakeholders, most notably the members of the local community. To achieve this, universities have had to overcome the occasionally justified prejudice about them that they are too remote from real life, and also have had to learn how to work with modern technology to provide information in a variety of the most useful formats, from peer-reviewed journals to broad audience media stories.