A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Professor Emeritus of Economics Robert Rycroft
Professor Emeritus of Economics Robert Rycroft, along with co-author Stacey Jones, has published the paperback edition of Income Inequality in America: A Reference Handbook. The book was originally released in hardcover in 2024 and explores the history, causes and policy debates surrounding the economic divide between rich and poor in the United States. Learn more about Income Inequality in America: A Reference Handbook.
Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft has co-authored Income Inequality in America: A Reference Handbook, published by ABC-CLIO. Inequality is the economic issue of our time. The United States is an extraordinarily affluent society compared to most others in the world today and to all others throughout human history, and that is news worth celebrating. But the dark underbelly of this news is that not everyone has shared in the prosperity, and inequality has only become more pronounced in recent decades. That is news worth lamenting and ought to command our full attention.
Inequality in America: Causes and Consequences, edited by Professor of Economics Robert S. Rycroft and College of Business Senior Lecturer Kimberley Kinsley, received both the 2022 IPPY Award Bronze in the Current Events II (Social Issues/Humanitarian) category and the Library Journal Best Reference of 2021 Award.
In addition, a paper they edited won the 2022 Albers Faculty Student Research Collaboration Award from Seattle University.
Inequality in America: Causes and Consequences consists of 35 essays written by 50 authors. Three essays were written by Rycroft, Kinsley and College of Education Assistant Professor Christy Irish. One was written by UMW alum Lauren DiRago-Duncan. The book’s introduction was written by UMW President Troy Paino.
On June 30, College of Business Senior Lecturer Kimberley Kinsley and Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft will have a book published, Inequality in America: Causes and Consequences, Santa Barbara, CA:ABC-CLIO. https://products.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5815C. It is an edited book consisting of 35 essays written by 50 authors, with substantial contributions from Kinsley and Rycroft. Kinsley wrote a chapter about civil justice. Rycroft, along with Lauren DiRago-Duncan ’15, now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky, wrote a chapter on labor markets. Both Kinsley and Rycroft wrote the preface and a chapter on wealth inequality. In addition, Assistant Professor of Education Christy Irish, along with Allison Ward Parsons from George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development, wrote a chapter on education reform policies. President Troy Paino wrote the introduction.
Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft
Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft recently discussed with Courthouse News the effect the recession, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has had on women and minorities.
Pew reported Thursday that women, particularly Hispanic women, fared much worse in the coronavirus recession than during the Great Recession of 2007-09. Conversely, African-American men, who saw a peak unemployment of 21.2% during the Great Recession, have seen only a 15.8% top unemployment rate this time around.
“The disparities have a lot to do with the different mix of occupations,” said Robert Rycroft, an economics professor at the University of Mary Washington. Rycroft noted that in previous recessions manufacturing and construction suffered more than the service sector. “Some jobs were very susceptible to the effects of the virus,” Rycroft said. Read more.
University of Mary Washington students enrolled in a philanthropy class are seeking applicants for $10,000 in grant money to be awarded to local nonprofit organizations.
Each fall, UMW’s philanthropy course awards a total of $10,000 to area nonprofit agencies.
The students have formed a foundation called the University of Mary Washington Philanthropic Society (UMWPS), and hope to fund programs that promote social justice through community development, including, but not limited to, career training, educational programs, and health services according to their mission statement.
The class will award a total of $10,000 to one or more nonprofits on Wednesday, December 4. The deadline for electronic applications is Friday, November 1 and the deadline for paper applications is Monday, October 28.
Eligible applicants must come from the City of Fredericksburg; the counties of Spotsylvania, Orange, King George, Stafford, Caroline, Culpeper and Prince William; the Middle Peninsula or the Northern Neck region. This year, the primary interest of the Economics of Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector class is in projects that foster community development, and they are willing to consider a wide variety of alternatives..
Since 2005, classes under the instruction of Robert Rycroft, professor of economics, have provided grant money to local nonprofit organizations. The funding comes from philanthropist Doris Buffett’s Learning by Giving Foundation.
The Learning by Giving Program has supported similar undergraduate courses in philanthropy at institutions across the country. The success of the program led to the recent creation of the Learning by Giving Foundation.