Q and A | Aparna Mathur and Gregory Acs

Aparna Mathur, resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and Gregory Acs, director of the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center, are interviewed in this video from NCSL's 2014 Legislative Summit in Minneapolis. Mathur received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005. At AEI, her research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses. She has published in several top scholarly journals, testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance. Acs' focuses on issues of social insurance, social welfare, and the compensation of workers. Recently, he has completed a study of the factors contributing to persistently high unemployment in the U.S. and policy responses to that problem. In addition, Acs has studied the low-wage labor market, changes in welfare policies and how they have affected welfare caseloads and the well-being of low-income families, and how state and federal policies affect the incentives families face as they move from welfare to work. He is the author and co-author of numerous scholarly journal articles, policy papers and briefs, and also reports to federal agencies. He also co-authored "Leaving Welfare: Employment and Well-Being of Families that Left Welfare in the Post-Entitlement Era."