The urban underclass and the poverty paradox / Paul E. Peterson -- Is the American underclass growing? / Christopher Jencks -- Employment and earnings of disadvantaged young men in a labor shortage economy / Richard B. Freeman -- Gains from growth? : the impact of full employment on poverty in Boston / Paul Osterman -- Joblessness and shiftlessness : labor force activity in Chicago's inner city / Marta Tienda and Haya Stier -- Teenage underclass behavior and subsequent poverty : have the rules changed? / Greg J. Duncan and Saul D. Hoffman -- Socioeconomic change and the decline of marriage for blacks and whites / Robert D. Mare and Christopher Winship -- "We'd love to hire them, but ..." : the meaning of race for employers / Joleen Kirschenman and Kathryn M. Neckerman.

Ghetto poverty in the United States, 1970-1980 / Paul A. Jargowsky and Mary Jo Bane -- Residential segregation of social and economic groups among blacks, 1970-1980 / Reynolds Farley -- Effects of neighborhoods on dropping out of school and teenage childbearing / Jonathan Crane -- How much does a high school's racial and socioeconomic mix affect graduation and teenage fertility rates? / Susan E. Mayer -- Employment and earnings of low-income blacks who move to middle-class suburbs / James E. Rosenbaum and Susan J. Popkin -- The political behavior of poor people / Jeffrey M. Berry, Kent E. Portney, and Ken Thomson -- Neighborhood effects on teenage pregnancy / Elijah Anderson -- Culture, rationality, and the underclass / J. David Greenstone.

Targeting within universalism : politically viable policies to combat poverty in the United States / Theda Skocpol -- Universal and targeted approaches to relieving poverty : an alternative view / Robert Greenstein -- Public policy research and The truly disadvantaged / William Julius Wilson.