Public concern with poverty derives in large part from the assumption that low income families cannot afford necessities. Yet official poverty statistics focus on measuring income, not on measuring material hardship. Two surveys of Chicago residents measure whether families could afford food,...

This paper examines the dynamics of poverty. Previous analyses have examined either fluctuations in the male heads' earnings or the frequency of poverty periods over a fixed time frame. Our approach depends on a definition of spells of poverty. Using this methodology we find that the majority of...