What did the 1990s welfare reforms accomplish? / Rebecca M. Blank -- The take-up of social benefits / Janet Currie -- Government programs and social outcomes: comparison of the United States with other rich nations / Timothy M. Smeeding -- Income and welfare concentration in a historical and international perspecive / Emmanuel Saez -- Social security and the evolution of elderly poverty / Gary V. Engelhardt and Jonathan Gruber -- The measurement and evolution of health inequality: evidence from the U.S. Medicare population / Jonathan Skinner and Weiping Zhou -- The socioeconomic status of black males: the increasing importance of incarceration / Steven Raphael -- Public health and mortality: what can we learn from the past? / Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn