Property Tax Reform in Illinois
In a Chicago Sun-Times editorial, IPR tax specialist Therese McGuire and her colleagues explain that despite a jump in Chicago's property taxes and dropping home values, the system is not out of control but a source of much needed stability. They call for reforms that target increased transparency and greater help for struggling homeowners.

Poverty Concentration and the Role of Public Housing
Though public housing has come to symbolize the problems of urban, high-poverty neighborhoods, new research by IPR sociologist Lincoln Quillian shows that it is not a main cause of concentrated poverty nationwide.

Environments Embodied: A New Look at Racial Disparities
IPR anthropologist Christopher Kuzawa uses an intergenerational model of biology and health to show how some "race-based" health disparities in the United States, previously chalked up to genetics, might be the result of environmental factors such as discrimination.

NU President Schapiro Moderates Symposium on Higher Education
For his inauguration as Northwestern's 16th president on October 9, Morton Schapiro, an IPR faculty fellow and economist, held two symposia including one on the economics of higher education with IPR economist Burton Weisbrod and three other experts. Schapiro is an author or editor of numerous books and more than 100 articles on the topic.

Eastern European Missile Shield Controversy: Not What It Seems
IPR political scientist Andrew Roberts discusses Barack Obama's recent declaration that the United States would no longer pursue a planned missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, shedding light on political and public reaction in these two countries over the scuttled deal.

Two IPR Fellows Receive NSF CAREER Awards
Sociologists Monica Prasad and Celeste Watkins-Hayes each received a prestigious National Science Foundation award for young faculty. Prasad will conduct a comparative historical analysis of tax progressivity and welfare effort in industrialized nations. Watkins-Hayes's award will expand her study of the economic survival strategies and social experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Fresh Look at Online Campaign Strategies
In two new working papers, IPR political scientist James Druckman looks at online campaign strategies from Congressional candidate Web sites, examining issue engagement (WP-09-07) and why and how candidates “go negative” against their opponents (WP-09-06).

Florida Voucher Students: No Better, No Worse Than Peers
IPR education researcher David Figlio's second report on the state's voucher program analyzes standardized test scores for almost 10,000 students between 2006 and 2008. Preliminary findings indicate that students in the program registered the same test score gains as their public school peers.
Click here to see the report

Recent Books by IPR Faculty

The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective	Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have	The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe: Public Preferences and Policy Reforms	The New Welfare Bureaucrats: Entanglements of Race, Class, and Policy Reform
Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America	The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis	Sex, Power and Taboo: Gender and HIV in the Caribbean and Beyond	Mission and Money: Understanding the University

Click here for a complete listing of IPR faculty books.