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.
Faculty Affiliate Dr. Lisa Gennetian published a paper in Nature that studies the effects of monthly cash transfers to low-income households. Gennetian, the Pritzker Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies at the Sanford School for Public Policy, was the lead author on the paper, which found that families who received substantial cash transfers during the…
Dr. William A. Darity, Cook Center Founding Director and Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and African and African American Studies, has been recognized as a Duke Centennial Trailblazer, an initiative by Duke University to honor 100 years of accomplishments and recognize “the faculty and staff leading us into the next century”. Darity’s…
Faculty Affiliate Dr. Sarah Gaither was recently interviewed on the Opinion Science Podcast about her research into how a random roommate assignment policy affects roommate relationships, attitudes, and behavioral changes based on roommate race. In the paper, published last month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Gaither, the Nicholas J. and Theresa M. Leonardy…
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…
