Stephen Roll, associate director of research, did an interview with the New York Times on how to best use your tax refund
What to Do With Your Tax Refund? Save for Emergencies. (Links to an external site)

Stephen Roll, associate director of research, did an interview with the New York Times on how to best use your tax refund
Data for Social Impact, an initiative of the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, has launched a free online course for social sector professionals. While many courses develop technical data skills, this course—designed with, by, and for social sector leaders—supports organizations in cultivating equitable, collaborative data practices. Each module includes worksheets, resource […]
St. Louis school mobility was investigated by St. Louis School Research-Practice Collaborative at Washington University, showing a high percentage of student’s changing schools
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, director, is listed as an expert on the housing market, and the effects it can have on productivity.
Following President Biden’s call to restore the Child Tax Credit, ABC27 cited SPI research demonstrating the positive effects of the policy.
Jason Jabbari, associate director of community partnerships, spoke about findings from a report he co-authored on the correlation between school security and academic performance.
$25,000 was awarded to Operation Food Search in order to broaden the Fresh RX program
Bank of America has awarded a grant to Operation Food Search, to expand the Fresh RX program.
Benefits Data Trust highlighted some key points their CEO, Trooper Sanders, made when he gave the Keynote Address at the DSSI Summit.
In November 2022, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis hosted Data is for Everyone: A Data for Social Impact Summit. The summit’s goal was to build connection and capacity among social sector organizations to cultivate equitable, community-centered data practices. The event featured 21 local and national speakers across five panels. Each […]
An SPI research report on the effects of the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit was cited in a submission by Human Rights Watch to the United Nations.
Yung Chun, research assistant professor of the Social Policy Institute and Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, received a $350,000 research award from Habitat for Humanity International to evaluate homeownership programs implemented by local Habitat affiliates and investigate the impact on wealth building for households with low incomes. Through this project, the Social […]
Jason Jabbari, associate director of community partnerships, has been awarded a two-year grant to study social mobility and equity in programs.
AFCPE announced their award winners for 2022, and SPI research won Outstanding Research Journal Article of the Year.
Social Policy Institute research was cited in this opinion piece on social mobility and its impact on children in Israel.
By Oren Heller, research director, Israel; Yaniv Shlomo, Data Analyst, Israel; Hayley Kalb, communications assistant; Michal Grinstein-Weiss, founding director Food insecurity is a national problem with short and long-term consequences that harm the economy and society. This problem was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the labor market changed, affecting the disposable income of many […]
Tyler Frank, doctoral research assistant, published this blog on GoodRX Health discussing how public health helps promote social justice, equity, and collective action, and how it keeps communities safe.
Dan Ferris, associate director of education and training for SPI, along with co-authors, recently published, “Does a food insecurity intervention improve perinatal outcomes for mother and child? A randomized control study protocol of the Fresh Rx: Nourishing Healthy Starts program,” in the Journal of Public Health Research.
As schools around the country have ramped up security efforts in response to recent school shootings, a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that increased surveillance is having a detrimental impact on academic performance.
I truly believe we can accomplish more by stepping outside of our own culture and seek to understand and learn from each other. This is what makes SPI’s global approach to its work so impactful. I look forward to hosting WashU colleagues in Israel next time.
By Kourtney Gilbert, program coordinator, SPI As researchers, we work a lot with numbers on a page. These numbers often feel distant from the people they represent, or the policy and practices we hope to inform. For this reason, when the Social Policy Institute launched its Building on Benefits research project aimed at better understanding […]
Prioritizing affordability of care will be the first step to ensuring that a healthy life is feasible for everyone regardless of finances.
A Trans-Atlantic Policy Forum could bring together academic researchers,
policy makers, advocates, and corporate leaders in the U.S. and U.K. to develop
insights to fuel changes in public policies and corporate behavior to promote the
financial security of low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals and families.
The Record announced a recent William T. Grant award for an education-based research grant with a research-practitioner partnership conducted by Jason Jabbari, research assistant professor of SPI.
Press release: June 8, 2022 Jason Jabbari, research assistant professor with the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, received a $512k grant from The William T. Grant Foundation to understand if and how the Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) reduces racial inequalities in academic outcomes for children and youth. Alongside Jabbari, co-principal investigators […]
Vox shares research on the impact of surveillance on children’s educational outcomes by Jason Jabbari, research assistant professor of SPI, and Odis Johnson, faculty affiliate of SPI.
Press release: May 11, 2022 According to a study by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, the convergence of college non-completion and student debt among borrowers lead to higher rates of material hardship, healthcare hardship, and financial difficulties than those with a high school degree, those with a college degree, and […]
In an exclusive with The Marker, the Social Policy Institute investigated the economic impact of Ramadan in Israel.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting interviewed Leah Hamilton, associate professor at SPI, about the effects of the child tax credit on families, highlighting SPI’s finding that 52% of West Virginian parents reported spending the payment on food.
Marketplace references an SPI study on the expanded child tax credit which examined the ways in which CTC recipients used the payments.
Deseret News highlights a recent SPI study on the expanded child tax credit, examining the ways in which parents used the payments.
The Marketplace interviewed Elaine Maag, senior fellow of the Tax Policy Center and co-author of the Child Tax Credit report by SPI, on the impacts the credit had on the financial security of American families.
The Intelligencer highlighted the recent SPI study looking at how parents used the payments not only for basic needs, but also to invest in their children’s futures.
HuffPost highlights findings from an SPI study on the CTC that show the payments enabled many parents to stop resorting to risky ways to make ends meet.
Press Release: April 14, 2021 St. Louis (April 14, 2022)— In a new report published with the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings Institution, researchers at the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis and Appalachian State University found that families who were eligible for the child tax credit (CTC) experienced improved nutrition, decreased […]
Yahoo Money interviewed Stephen Roll, research assistant professor at SPI, about the spike in unemployment in parents following the termination of the CTC payments.
Basic Income Today featured results from an SPI study on the child tax credit, finding that the termination of the CTC was followed by households experiencing decreased employment.
The National Interest cites a recent SPI study by Stephen Roll, Yung Chun, and Leah Hamilton, that found no evidence that the increased payments led to parents leaving their jobs.
Stephen Roll, associate director of research at the Social Policy Institute, was interviewed by Yahoo! Money about a recent survey that found that employment did not decline during the period that the Child Tax Credit was in effect.
CNBC News interviewed Stephen Roll, SPI research assistant professor, about the effects of the child tax credit on families and the workforce.
The Center for the National Interest highlighted SPI’s study finding that the Child Tax Credit supported parents to start their own small businesses.
AS news summary featured an SPI study which found no evidence that the child tax credit payments negatively affected employment.
Loudoun Times-Mirror cites results from a recent SPI study which examined the impact of the CTC on employment.
The Center for the National Interest discussed SPI’s recent Child Tax Credit (CTC) study which found that the CTC did not create a significant change in the labor force.