Children, Families, and Communities Research

Pardee RAND students and faculty help provide solutions to the social welfare and economic challenges faced by children and families, vulnerable populations, and historically marginalized communities. RAND’s work in this area, including the Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy and the Center on Housing and Homelessness, aims to understand why people make the decisions they do and how individuals and communities can increase their resilience.

Student-Faculty Research Collaborations

Through project-based research and other experiential learning opportunities, students work with faculty mentors to obtain professional skills and tacit knowledge that courses alone cannot convey. Here are a few recent projects and their resulting research.

Faculty, Students Investigate the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap
Policy interventions to address current wealth disparities must understand the long-standing inequities that contributed to them. A series of discussion papers by professors Jonathan Welburn, Kathryn Edwards, and a team of faculty and students investigated how wealth is accumulated, the potential effects of particular policy responses, and the social mobility prospects of African Americans.
Advancing Global Citizenship in America
Concerted international action is required to address climate change and sustainability, pandemics, global security, and economic growth. But such action requires a sense of common destiny and shared responsibility among people across nations. What are Americans' attitudes toward global issues, and what could encourage them to become citizens of the world?