Financial Incentives

Report

Five-Year Findings from the Family Self-Sufficiency Evaluation

May, 2023
Stephen Freedman, Nandita Verma, Betsy L. Tessler, Barbara Fink

The federal Family Self-Sufficiency program is a voluntary case-management and asset-building intervention that provides incentives to work for Housing Choice Voucher recipients. This report examines program implementation, participants’ engagement in the services, and impacts on labor force participation and government benefits receipt five years following random assignment.

Report
May, 2023

The Jobs Plus demonstration aimed to increase economic empowerment and mobility for public housing residents through on-site employment services, rent-based work incentives, and supportive work activities. Sites that fully implemented the model saw long-term positive employment and earnings effects, but negative effects were observed in sites that did not. 

Report
May, 2023

In 2014, HUD scaled up Jobs Plus, a rigorously tested and promising model offering rent incentives and on-site work supports to public housing residents. The first three cohorts show no evidence of higher employment or earnings during the early years, potentially due to lower participation levels and implementation challenges.

Brief

Exploring the Experiences of Students Ages 25 and Older

December, 2022
Marjorie Dorimé-Williams, Vivianna Plancarte

The SUCCESS project aims to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students at community and broad-access colleges. This brief highlights the experiences of students 25 years or older in four SUCCESS colleges. The findings suggest how programmatic and institutional structures may promote or hamper student success for this population.

Brief

A Synthesis of Findings from the Paycheck Plus Demonstration

June, 2022
Cynthia Miller, Lawrence F. Katz, Adam Isen

The Paycheck Plus Demonstration in New York and Atlanta offered an expanded after-tax bonus to low-income workers without dependent children, a population that benefits little from the current Earned Income Tax Credit. This brief presents impacts on employment, earnings, and income based on the pooled sample from both cities.

Brief

A Brief Synthesis of 20 Years of MDRC’s Randomized Controlled Trials

June, 2022

What works to help community college students progress academically? This brief synthesizes 20 years of rigorous research by MDRC, presenting new evidence about key attributes of community college interventions that are positively related to larger impacts on students’ academic progress.

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