McNair Scholar 2022 Katie Nguyen
Katie Nguyen is a rising senior at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, double majoring in Sociology and Applied Economics and minoring in Asian-American Studies. Her research interests include the built discriminatory environment within social spheres and policy implementation, in addition to government facilitators in addressing disparities.
My dream is to attain a Ph.D. in the social sciences relating to policy in order to contribute to research and literature that facilitates the plausibility of redistributive wealth laws and other governmental social programs to bridge inequities for marginalized populations.
Research project
Testing the Welfare Magnet Hypothesis in Minnesota from 1970-2000
Abstract: The welfare magnet hypothesis postulates that interstate migrant decisions are influenced by differences between state welfare policies. States like Minnesota with generous welfare benefits and low eligibility thresholds, with this logic, act as welfare magnets and attract poor people. This study tests the hypotheses that a) the probability of welfare recipiency was higher in Minnesota for migrants vs non-migrants and that b) the racial gap in welfare recipiency widened after reforms mandated a lifetime limit for welfare receipt. We estimate linear probability models with year and county fixed effects using census micro-samples for 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. The preliminary results show that Blacks have higher probabilities of welfare recipiency than whites across all samples. Black female migrants are likelier to receive welfare than non-migrants from 1970-2000, and White females follow the same trend post-1970. Both Black and White male migrants are less likely to receive welfare than their non-migrant counterparts.
Faculty mentor
Samuel L. Myers is currently the Director of the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice, a subset of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Dr. Myers attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1976. His research interests pertain to a large swath of subjects, from evaluation of anti-racism programs to microeconomic policy analysis. Dr. Myers has worked with several high-ranking committees, governmental positions, and academic entities to make resounding policy implementations and evaluate their effects on marginalized communities.