- hhill@uchicago.edu
773-702-1142
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Winter/Spring 2010 PDP Schedule available January 4, 2010
Heather D. Hill, Ph.D.
- Research
- Biography
- Publications
The sweeping welfare reform legislation of 1996, which conditioned the receipt of cash assistance on employment, raised important questions about the impact of social policies on the health and development of children, particularly those in single, low-income families. For instance, how does employment among single mothers affect family resources, parent-child time, and child care settings? And, what effects do the characteristics of low-wage employment have on parents' well-being, parenting practices, and children's development? Professor Hill's research examines the effects of welfare and other social policies on low-income workers-who often have jobs with low wages, few employee benefits, and nonstandard or inconsistent work hours-and their children. Most research so far, Hill says, suggests that, on balance, welfare reform had few overall effects on children's cognitive or behavioral development. But, digging deeper, it appears that the quality of maternal employment-for instance, whether it increases family income or provides health insurance coverage-may moderate the effects of employment on young children. Policy makers could draw useful lessons, for instance, from Milwaukee's New Hope Project, which Professor Hill has studied. The widely-praised program supported full-time workers with low incomes by providing an earnings supplement, as well as subsidized child care and health insurance. The program not only increased employment rates among participants, it increased family income and improved children's performance in school.
Professor Hill's research draws from economic theory and methods to understand policy effects, parental work decisions, and investments in child well-being, as well as from the field of Developmental Psychology to explain why and how children are affected by these factors. She conducts primarily quantitative research, using experimental and econometric methods, but has also participated in the collection and analysis of qualitative data. She is currently part of the Next Generation Project, a study led by the non-profit research firm MDRC, which uses data from multiple experimental welfare programs to examine the effects of welfare, employment, income, and child care on child outcomes. She has been a qualitative interviewer on several program evaluations, including the Gautreaux II housing mobility project in Chicago.
Heather Hill is an Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. Her fields of interest include poverty and inequality, program evaluation, maternal employment, unmarried parents, and the health and development of young children. At SSA, she teaches Social Intervention: Programs and Policies and Data for Policy Analysis and Management.
Professor Hill holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington; a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan; and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University. Her background also includes several years as a research analyst at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. in Washington, D.C. and two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast.
Publications
- Duncan, G.J., Bos, H., Gennetian, L.A., & Hill, H.D. 2009. New Hope: A thoughtful and effective approach to "make work pay." Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy 4(1): 101-115.
- Hill, H.D. 2008. Data Sources, Adulthood: Current Population Survey (CPS). In the Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, ed. Carr, D. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.
- Hill, H.D. & Morris, P. 2008. Welfare policies and very young children: Experimental data on stage-environment fit. Developmental Psychology 44(6): 1557-1571.
- Hill. H.D. 2007. Steppin' out: Infidelity and sexual jealousy. In P. England & K. Edin (Eds.), Unmarried Couples with Children. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Bos, H., Duncan, G.J., Gennetian, L., & Hill, H.D. 2007. Fulfilling America's 'make work pay' promise with New Hope. A Hamilton Project Strategy and Discussion Paper. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
