The Russell Sage Foundation and Low-Wage America: A Review Commentary

Abstract

The Russell Sage Foundation, founded in the Progressive era in 1907, remains one of America’s most impressive research institutions. Its original purpose was to address and disseminate knowledge of the country’s social and economic problems with the intention of improving living conditions for the most disadvantaged citizens. Over the years, it has bridged the worlds of social science academics and the makers of public policy with some success. The Foundation’s strength has always derived from a commitment to the values of impartiality and independence, and from an evidence-based approach to the pursuit of a wide-ranging research program. Such an outlook may not find much favor among the ideologues of the right and left, but it has gone a long way to ensure that the Foundation’s publications cannot be so easily dismissed. In strategic collaboration with other eminent research bodies—the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment, for example—Russell Sage is continuing to make thoughtful and important contributions to policy debates concerning the future of the United States.