This paper considers the long-run patterns of poverty in the United States from the early 1960s to 2010. Our results … contradict previous studies that have argued that poverty has shown little improvement over time or that anti-poverty efforts … have been ineffective. We find that moving from traditional income-based measures of poverty to a consumption-based measure …

Standard measures of poverty may reveal nothing about whether the poorest of the poor are being lifted-up or left …

political debate surrounding poverty. Policy changes included a radical shift in welfare policy, a sizable expansion in supports … plummeted, work rose dramatically among single parents, and poverty was reduced. At the same time, there are indications that …