The Samuel DuBois Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the causes and consequences of inequality and develops remedies for these disparities and their adverse effects.
Many countries use direct cash aid programs as an integral part of their social safety net. In the United States, there have been few national efforts, but more and more guaranteed income programs are being implemented at state, county, and local levels. In this episode, Dr. Lisa Gennetian draws on her co-authored paper, “Unconditional Cash Transfers for…
Faculty Affiliate Kisha Daniels gave comments in Duke Chronicle feature about the potential impact of grade inflations on the University’s grading practices. The feature includes interviews from various Duke faculty with perspectives about lenient grading, students complaining about B’s, the pressures of the job market, and students just performing better. Dr. Daniels offered a perspective…
On April 15th, Cook Center Faculty Affiliate Fenaba Addo joined the Kitchen table gathering event at the Brookings Institute, part of the launch for Andre Perry’s new book, Black Power Scorecard. Perry’s book draws on extensive research to measure how much power Black Americans have by examining property ownership, business, wealth, education, health, and social…
Founding Director William Darity Jr. co-authored a new literature review in The BMJ that directly addresses one of the most persistent critiques of reparations: the claim that no feasible plan exists. The proposal outlines direct monetary payments as the clearest economic measure of the cumulative and intergenerational effects of white supremacy. The article argues that…
Cook Center Director William A. Darity Jr. will be among the featured speakers at an upcoming public hearing hosted by the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies (NYSCCRR) on Saturday, March 21st, 2026, in Staten Island, New York. The hearing, titled “Economic Development: Quantifying Harms,” is part of the Commission’s statewide effort to…
New research co-authored by Faculty Affiliate Sarah Gaither, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, explores how something as routine as demographic forms can influence feelings of inclusion and identity among marginalized communities. Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the study—“Enumeration or Exclusion? Demographic Forms and Latine Identity”—investigates how demographic questions may…
