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Title: Why Poverty Remains High: Reassessing the Effect of Economic Growth, Income Inequality, and Change in Family Structure on Poverty, 1949-1999

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2001

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Abstract: After dramatic declines in poverty from 1950 to the early 1970s, progress stalled. Three major processes-- economic growth, income inequality, and changes in family structure-- have been thought to shape trends over this period. I compare the relative effect of these processes using three measures of poverty: the current official measure, a relative poverty measure, and, for part of the analysis, a technically more refined quasi-relative poverty measure. Using data from the Census and Current Population Survey, I find that income growth explains most of the trend in absolute poverty over the half century, while economic inequality plays the most significant role in explaining trends in relative poverty. Rising income inequality in the 1970s and 1980s was especially important in explaining increases in Latino poverty, while changes in family structure played a larger role among African Americans than others through 1990. In a striking reversal, changes in family structure no longer served to increase poverty among any group in the 1990s.

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Authors: Iceland, John

Conference Name: American Sociological Association

Publisher Location: Anaheim, CA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Family and Marriage, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Poverty and Welfare

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