Laura Tach

 

Laura Tach

Assistant Professor
247, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Policy Analysis and Management
 
Phone: (607) 254-5282 Fax: (607) 255-4071
Email: lmt88@cornell.edu
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Curriculum Vitae
 
Biographical Statement:

Dr. Laura Tach is a sociologist who studies how social policies intersect with demographic and economic changes in American society. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard University. 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.

 
Current Research Activities:
Laura's current research examines how social policies affect urban poverty and family life. Her first area of research studies how neighborhood inequality has changed as a result of housing policies designed to deconcentrate poverty.  With funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Science Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she has conducted mixed-method studies of the dynamics of mixed-income neighborhoods in the United States. Papers emerging from this work investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of neighborhood economic diversity, the social dynamics among residents when housing policies deconcentrate poverty, and the consequences of poverty deconcentration for neighborhood health environments and resident health behaviors.
Laura’s second area of research examines family structures and economic coping strategies among the urban poor. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, she has examined how family instability and complexity influence the well-being of unmarried parents and the dynamics of paternal involvement following nonmarital births.  She is also involved in a collaborative study funded by the Ford Foundation that examines the public and private strategies low-income families use to make ends meet in the post-welfare reform era, with a focus on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

 
Education:

B.A. Sociology, Pennsylvania State University

A.M. Sociology, Harvard University

Ph.D. Sociology & Social Policy, Harvard University

 
Courses Taught:

PAM 2450: Neighborhoods & Housing Policy (Fall 2012)

PAM 3150: Social Welfare Policy in the United States (Spring 2013)

 
Selected Publications:

 

 Books

 

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

 

 Journal Articles

 

Tach, Laura and Kathryn Edin. Forthcoming. “The Compositional and Institutional Sources of Union Dissolution among Married and Unmarried Parents.” Demography.

 

McLanahan, Sara, Tach, Laura, and Daniel Schneider. Forthcoming. “The Causal Effect of Father Absence.” Annual Review of Sociology.

 

Mendenhall, Ruby, Kathryn Edin, Jeff Kling, Jennifer Sykes, Laura Tach, and Katrin Kris. 2012. “The Role of the EITC in the Budgets of Low Income Families.” Social Service Review 86(3): 327-400.

 

Western, Bruce, Bloome, Deirdre, Sosnud, Benjamin, and Laura Tach. 2012. “Economic Insecurity among American Families.” Annual Review of Sociology 38: 341-359.

 

Tach, Laura and Sarah Halpern-Meekin. 2012. “Marital Quality and Divorce Decisions:
How do Premarital Cohabitation and Nonmarital Childbearing Matter?” Family Relations 61(4): 571-585.

 

Tach, Laura and Kathryn Edin. 2011. “Low-Income Men as Partners.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 635(May): 56-75.

 

Tach, Laura, Ronald Mincy, and Kathryn Edin. 2010. “Parenting as a Package Deal: Relationships, Fertility, and Nonresident Father Involvement among Unmarried Parents.” Demography 47(1): 181-204.

 

Tach, Laura. 2009. “More than Bricks and Mortar: Neighborhood Frames, Social Processes, and the Mixed-Income Redevelopment of a Public Housing Project.” City & Community 8(3): 273-303.

 

Odgers, Candice, Terrie Moffitt, Laura Tach, Robert Sampson. 2009. “The Protective Effects of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy on Children Growing Up in Deprivation: A Developmental Analysis.” Developmental Psychology 45(4): 942-957.

 

Tach, Laura and Sarah Halpern-Meekin. 2009. “How Does Premarital Cohabitation Affect Trajectories of Marital Quality?” Journal of Marriage and Family 71: 298-317.

 

Edin, Kathryn, Laura Tach, and Ronald Mincy. 2009. “Claiming Fatherhood: Race and the Dynamics of Paternal Involvement among Unmarried Fathers.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621: 149-177.

 

Halpern-Meekin, Sarah and Laura Tach. 2008. “Heterogeneity in Two-Parent Families and Adolescent Well-Being.” Journal of Marriage and Family 70: 435-451.

 

Tach, Laura and George Farkas. 2006. “Ability Grouping and Educational Stratification in the Early School Years.” Social Science Research 35: 1048-1079.

 

 

 
The information on this bio page is taken from the CHE Annual Report.