Publications

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The First Primary: Why New Hampshire?
December 23, 2019
For the past half century, political leaders, representatives of various states, and media pundits have excoriated the premier positions that New Hampshire and Iowa hold in the presidential delegate selection process.
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Polling and the New Hampshire Primary
December 19, 2019
In this brief, authors David Moore and Andrew Smith discuss caveats that should be considered when interpreting what the polls mean for the February 2020 New Hampshire primary.
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New Hampshire’s Changing Electorate
December 16, 2019
In this brief, authors Kenneth Johnson, Dante Scala, and Andrew Smith discuss demographic forces that are reshaping the New Hampshire landscape.
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For One in Four Very Young, Low-Income Children, Parents Are Young Too
December 12, 2019
This brief maps the distribution of children living with young adult parents, describes their parents’ characteristics, and details ways to strengthen policy supports that can fortify their families’ ability to succeed.
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New Hampshire Demographic Trends in an Era of Economic Turbulence
November 19, 2019
In this brief, author Kenneth Johnson reports that New Hampshire gained 40,000 residents (a 3 percent increase) between 2010 and 2018, and the population reached 1,356,458 on July 1, 2018, according to the Census Bureau.
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Government Spending Across the World
November 5, 2019
In this brief, authors Michael Ettlinger, Jordan Hensley, and Julia Vieira analyze how much the governments of different countries spend, and on what, to illuminate the range of fiscal policy options available and provide a basis for determining which approaches work best.
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Facial Recognition and Drivers’ Licenses
October 29, 2019
In this brief, authors Daniel Bromberg, Étienne Charbonneau, and Andrew Smith present the findings of a 2017 Granite State Poll asking New Hampshire residents how they feel about the Department of Motor Vehicles sharing their driver’s license photos with the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
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Child Poverty Declines Slightly in 2018 to 18 Percent
September 26, 2019
In this data snapshot, author Jessica Carson reports that according to analyses of new American Community Survey data released today, nearly one-in-five American children were poor in 2018. While child poverty has finally returned to pre-recession rates, the 0.4 percentage point decline since 2017 continues the trend of incremental decreases in child poverty since the post-recession peak in 2012…
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Tracking Change in the North Country
September 4, 2019
In this brief, author Eleanor Jaffee summarizes several major accomplishments of a ten year research partnership between the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Carsey School and considers how they may inform future policy and programming in New Hampshire's North Country.
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“My Advice…Is Get Out of Town”
August 13, 2019
In this brief, we use interview and focus group data to explore how residents view the economic opportunities in two rural Northern New England counties and how these opportunities are related to migration patterns.
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What to Do With Dams
July 25, 2019
In this brief, authors Natallia Leuchanka Diessner, Catherine Ashcraft, Kevin Gardner, and Lawrence Hamilton present results from statewide surveys in New Hampshire that explore public views about dam removal.
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Climate-Change Views of New Hampshire Primary Voters
June 25, 2019
In this brief, author Lawrence Hamilton discusses the results of an April 2019 Granite State Poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center that asked 549 New Hampshire residents whether they planned to vote in the state’s 2020 presidential primary election and, if so, which candidate they favored. The survey also asked residents about their views on climate change.
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Mapping the Food Landscape in New Hampshire
June 11, 2019
In this brief, Jess Carson explores the food landscape of New Hampshire, documenting where lower incomes and low population density might lead to food insecurity, and mapping the locations of various food sources.
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U.S. Fertility Rate Hits Record Low and Births Continue to Diminish
May 16, 2019
National Center for Health Statistics data for 2018 show the lowest general fertility rate on record and just 3,788,000 births—the fewest in 32 years. There were 528,000 fewer births (12 percent) in 2018 than in 2007, just before the Great Recession began to influence births.
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Supporting Coös Youth on the Path to Adulthood:
May 13, 2019
The “Supporting Coös Youth on the Path to Adulthood” conference was held on October 26th, 2018, at the Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire. This report describes the themes and priorities heard during the conference’s small and large group discussions.
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Northern New Hampshire Youth in a Changing Rural Economy
May 13, 2019
The Coös Youth Study was a ten-year research project about growing up in a rural county undergoing transformative economic and demographic changes. The study addressed how these changes affected youths’ well-being as well as their plans to stay in the region, pursue opportunities elsewhere, permanently relocate, or return to their home communities with new skills and new ideas.
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Support for Paid Family and Medical Leave in New Hampshire
May 8, 2019
In October 2018, the last period for which we conducted public opinion research, support for a paid family and medical leave program was high. Seventy-eight percent of New Hampshire residents stated support for a program that would provide a portion of wages to workers taking leave for personal or family medical reasons.
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The Motherhood Wage Penalty
May 1, 2019
Gender inequality has declined precipitously over the past half-century, fundamentally altering women’s, men’s, and their children’s lives. Despite these changes, women continue to pay a wage penalty for motherhood, earning about 5 percent less than equally-qualified childless women.
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Closing Racial-Ethnic Gaps in Poverty
April 25, 2019
Although the role of government programs in alleviating poverty is widely studied, far less attention is paid to how these programs may differentially impact people with different racial-ethnic identities. Given that poverty rates among non-Hispanic whites are significantly lower than among other groups, programs with disparate effects by race can either widen or decrease racial-ethnic gaps in…
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Migration Fuels a Second Year of Higher Population Gain in New Hampshire
April 19, 2019
In this data snapshot, author Kenneth Johnson reports that the population of New Hampshire grew by 6,700 between July of 2017 and July of 2018 to 1,356,000 according to new Census Bureau estimates. This gain coupled with a population increase of 7,400 last year added 14,100 residents to the state between 2016 and 2018.