Public programs are ‘good economic bets’
Is it a hand up or a hand out? Historically, much of the public debate about the nation’s social safety net has centered on its efficacy or its cost to taxpayers. There’s been a strong, widely held presumption that such programs are burdensome charities that encourage laziness and yield little economic benefit to society. Gareth Olds, 29, an assistant professor who studies labor economics in Harvard Business School’s (HBS) entrepreneurial management unit, had good reason to suspect that perception was off the mark, but found almost no existing research to confirm or contradict his hunch. “There’s already good evidence that income support and public programs do return investments for a society independent of any kind of moral claim that they have,” he said. “They’re good economic bets. Similar studies have been done on public education, and yet it’s something we continue to cut and cut and cut.” Olds specifically wanted to know whether a...