Do Anti-Poverty Programs Work Better Than We Think?

(Nov. 3) – Poverty data generally comes from the Census Bureau, which bases its analysis on the Current Population Survey. But do poor people under-report or underestimate the value of the programs they participate in? They might, and it seems to me it’s pretty easy to figure this out. Add up the value of, say, all SNAP reports from the CPS, and then compare it to the actual amount of SNAP money the government sends out. If it doesn’t match pretty closely, then the survey is off.

A tool to address poverty

(Nov. 3) – Statistics about the health and wealth of Americans hold a vexing paradox. Steady signs of improvement are regularly reported on the news. Unemployment continues to decline. Consumer confidence is generally on the rise. The housing crisis appears to have stabilized. The price of oil has given many a freedom to go and do what has been absent in recent years.

New Human Need Index fills a data void to help those in need

(Nov. 2) – Working together and with an advisory board of scholars, the Salvation Army and the Lilly School have created a real-time Human Needs Index drawn from service provision tracking systems maintained by more than 7,000 Salvation Army sites nationwide. The index provides useful insight into consumption of an array of emergency services (e.g., food, shelter, clothing) at a given place and point in time across the entire country.

The US needs to redefine poverty

(Nov. 2) – The recent campaigns to push for an increase in minimum wage rates across the United States have attracted much media coverage. The state of New York is making moves to approve a $15 per hour floor, joining Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. There is growing support for ensuring minimal income levels to promote equitable living standards. Less attention has been paid, however, to the capricious relationship minimum wage policy has with inflation. The U.S. is unique among developed nations in maintaining an inadequately low federal poverty rate and failing to accommodate increases in the cost of living.

Looking Back at the War on Poverty: A Conversation with Sheldon Danziger

(Oct. 29) – In some political circles, it is automatically assumed that the War on Poverty was a failure. At the National Urban League conference in July of 2015, former governor of Florida and presidential candidate Jeb Bush described the War on Poverty as a “decades-long effort [that] while well intentioned, has been a losing one. And the casualties can be counted in the millions who never had the chance at work and whose families fell victim to drugs, violence, and the crushing of the spirit.”

America’s Urgent Need to Tackle Child Poverty, in 3 Charts

(Oct. 29) – Grow­ing up poor has wide-ran­ging neg­at­ive ef­fects. De­pend­ing on where they live, Amer­ica’s poor chil­dren are less likely to have ac­cess to good pub­lic schools and less likely to earn high­er wages later in life. In chil­dren, poverty is also linked to slower brain de­vel­op­ment (which fur­ther wor­sens aca­dem­ic per­form­ance) and health prob­lems, such as asthma and obesity.

We’ve Been Measuring Poverty All Wrong

(Oct. 29) – According to an economic study released this month, poverty-reducing programs such as food stamps and housing vouchers are almost twice as effective as originally estimated. Using government administrative records for the state of New York, University of Chicago economist Bruce Meyer and CERGE-EI’s Nikolas Mittag were able to test the accuracy of the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC).