Low-income families are known to live “paycheck to paycheck,” but a study has found that many in the MIDDLE CLASS — typically families with two educated spouses in their 40s — live the same way. Economics professor Greg Kaplan and graduate student Justin Weidner, with a New York University colleague, found that two-thirds of the 38 million American households that fall into the paycheck-to-paycheck category have substantial funds in housing and retirement accounts, but use most of their paychecks for mortgage payments and other expenses. The study was published in May by the Brookings Institution.
A 30-day waiting period for Medicaid patients seeking a tubal ligation — known as having one’s “tubes tied” — decreases access to the procedure for low-income women and may result in more UNINTENDED PREGNANCIES. A study co-authored by James Trussell, a professor of economics and public affairs, found that a required 30-day wait after signing a consent form prevented women from having the procedure just after giving birth, when it commonly is done. The findings were published in January in the online version of The New England Journal of Medicine.