Journal of Political Economy Vol. 101 No. 1 1993
Gaining Ground: Poverty in the Postwar United States
Abstract
Official measures of poverty in the United States are compiled by the Bureau of the Census by comparing a household's income level to a prespecified threshold. From a theoretical perspective it is more appropriate to evaluate the level of poverty using a consumption-based measure of household welfare. In this paper I evaluate the level of poverty using expenditure data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. I find that consumption-based poverty rates are much lower than those based on income. The trend in the poverty rate in the United States is sensitive to the price index and equivalence scales used to adjust the poverty thresholds.
- DOI
- 10.1086/261864
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-38
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex crossref