Laura Tach

Overview

Dr. Laura Tach is a sociologist who studies urban poverty and family life. Her mixed-methods research examines how neighborhoods and families reproduce inequality and how public policy affects these processes.

Together with Rachel Dunifon, she co-directs Cornell Project 2Gen, an initiative of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Project 2Gen serves as a hub for research, policy, and practice that supports vulnerable caregivers and children together. 

Laura received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard University in 2010. Prior to joining the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University, Laura was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

Research Focus

• Poverty and Public Policy
• Family Demography
• Neighborhood Inequality

Publications

Books

• Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kathryn Edin, Laura Tach, and Jennifer Sykes McLaughlin. 2015. It’s Not Like I’m Poor: The Financial Lives of the Working Poor. University of California Press.
   

Recent Journal Articles

• Tach, Laura and Allison Dwyer Emory. 2017. “Public Housing Redevelopment, Neighborhood Change, and the Restructuring of Urban Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 123(3): 686-739.
   
• Tach, Laura and Kathryn Edin. 2017. “The Social Safety Net after Welfare Reform: Recent Developments and Consequences for Household Dynamics.” Annual Review of Sociology 43: 541-561.
   
• Tach, Laura, Sara Jacoby, Douglas J. Wiebe, Therese Guerra, and Therese S. Richmond. 2016. “The Effect of Microneighborhood Conditions on Adult Educational Attainment in a Subsidized Housing Intervention.” Housing Policy Debate 26(2): 380-397.
   
• Western, Bruce, Deirdre Bloome, Benjamin Sosnaud, and Laura Tach. 2016. “Trends in Income Insecurity among U.S Children, 1984-2010.” Demography 53(2): 419-447.
   
• Tach, Laura and Alicia Eads. 2015. “The Economic Consequences of Marital and Cohabitation Dissolution.” Demography 52(2): 401-432.
   
• Tach, Laura. 2015. “Social Mobility in an Era of Family Instability and Complexity.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 657: 83-97. 
   
• Tach, Laura. 2014. “Diversity, Inequality, and Microsegregation: Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in a Racially and Economically Diverse Community.” Cityscape 16(3): 13-45.
   
• Tach, Laura, Kathryn Edin, Hope Harvey, and Brielle Bryan. 2014. “The Family-Go-Round: Family Complexity and Father Involvement from a Father's Perspective.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 654(1): 169-184.
   
• Tach, Laura and Sarah Halpern-Meekin. 2014. “Tax Code Knowledge and Behavioral Responses among EITC Recipients: Policy Insights from Qualitative Data.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 33(2) 413-439.
   
• Tach, Laura and Sara Sternberg Greene. 2014. “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: Economic and Cultural Explanations for How Lower-Income Families Manage Debt.” Social Problems 61(1): 1-21.