Journal Article

Trends in Deep Poverty from 1968 to 2011: The Influence of Family Structure, Employment Patterns, and the Safety Net

Liana Fox, Jae Hyun Nam, Irwin Garfinkel, Jane Waldfogel, Christopher Wimer, Neeraj Kaushal

2015

Overview

This paper examines the changing face of deep poverty in the United States over the past fifty years and the role of family structure, employment patterns, and governmental taxes and transfers in explaining these trends. Using a newly developed historical measure of poverty based on the Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure, we find that deep poverty rates have been fairly constant over the past fifty years, both overall and for families with children. In view of changes in family structure and government policy over this period, the intransigence of deep poverty is surprising. However, this overall stability obscures changes in the demographics of individuals and families in deep poverty, as well as the role of government policy. Governmental transfers reduce the risk of deep poverty for all subgroups examined, but the significance and the role of these programs have changed over time.

• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Subject: Adults / Age / antipoverty programs / Budgets / Censuses / Child care / Children / Cohabitation / Consumer Economics / Demography / Employed Parents / Employment / Employment Patterns / Families & family life / Family Influence / Family Role / Family roles / Family structure / Food stamps / Government Role / historical poverty trends / historical Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) / Housing / Income distribution / Living Standards / Lunch Programs / National Surveys / Part I. Severe Deprivation Among the Young and Old / Population / Poverty / Poverty rates / Public assistance programs / Public policy / Risk reduction / Safety / School lunches / State Surveys / Tax credits / Taxation / Time / Transfer taxes / Trend Analysis / Trends / United States poverty threshold