Economic Mobility

Can New Narratives Bolster Policy Change?

Efforts to address poverty and inequality in the U.S. inevitably confront a barrier: the American Dream. This cultural default prizes individualism and personal responsibility and can complicate policy support. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SPARQ is examining whether new narratives about economic opportunity can be leveraged for policy change. Read more about how mindsets can shape people’s understandings of poverty and inequality and how to shift policy attitudes.

Can We Improve Investor Decision-Making?

Of the $69.1 trillion global financial assets under management, fewer than 1.3% are managed by women and people of color. In prior work, SPARQ found that professional asset allocators were more prone to reject venture capital funds led by highly qualified, Black-led teams. Partnering with the SPAN Lab and Illumen Capital, with support from the Hewlett Foundation and the Stanford GSB Responsible Investing Initiative, SPARQ is examining the psychological and neural processes that could underpin these decision-making processes.

Are There Better Metrics To Measure Mobility?

Over 40 million people in the U.S. live in poverty. However, people and programs working to alleviate poverty often lack metrics to measure mobility, so they have difficulty detecting and scaling interventions that work. In collaboration with the Urban Institute and the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, SPARQ developed the Measuring Mobility Toolkit to provide researchers and practitioners with tools to measure key aspects of mobility. Learn more about the research behind the toolkit.

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