Poverty rates are highest in the most urban and most rural areas of the United States, and are higher in non-metropolitan (nonmetro) than metropolitan (metro) areas, yet rural poverty remains relatively obscured from mainstream political and popular attention. This fact has motivated...

Was local job growth a significant determinant of poverty reduction between 1990 and 2000? This research takes advantage of newly available data and techniques to explore the job growth on tract-level poverty reduction. Spatial corrections to the model allow for more accurate identification of...

This paper examines utilization rates of Minnesota's earned income tax credit program by households on welfare from 1992 through 1999. We examine urban and rural differences in the rate of filing an income tax return and receiving the earned income tax credit. Tabulations show that urban areas...

Over the past four decades almost 400 U.S. counties have persistently had poverty rates in excess of 20 percent. These counties are generally characterized by weak economies and disadvantaged populations. This raises the hotly debated question of whether poverty-reducing policies should be...

This paper uses Panel Study of Income Dynamics data for 1989, 1994, and 1999 to examine why some U.S. households are asset poor; that is, why households have insufficient resources to invest in their future or to sustain household members at a basic level during times of economic disruption. The...

Persistent poverty is overwhelmingly rural and is very geographically concentrated. We have redefined the USDA ERS persistent poverty classification to include metropolitan counties meeting the 20 percent or higher poor criterion and we extend the time period through the 2000 Census. With this...