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 …

Recent research suggests that rates of extreme poverty, commonly defined as living on less than $2/person/day, are high … and rising in the United States. We re-examine the rate of extreme poverty by linking 2011 data from the Survey of Income … and Program Participation and Current Population Survey, the sources of recent extreme poverty estimates, to …

using the Current Population Survey (CPS), the source of official poverty and inequality statistics. We link administrative … income of poor households. Underreporting in the survey data also greatly understates the effects of anti-poverty programs … and changes our understanding of program targeting. Using the combined data rather than survey data alone, the poverty …

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

Many studies examine the anti-poverty effects of social insurance and means-tested transfers, relying solely on survey … Program Participation data. Using the linked data, we find that Social Security cuts the poverty rate by a third – more than … effective. All programs except for the EITC sharply reduce deep poverty (below 50% of the poverty line), while the impact of the …

build sustainable income for those in extreme poverty. We focus on two important questions: whether a mere grant of …

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 …