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Title: A Portrait of Poverty within California Counties and Demographic Groups

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: This research brief presents initial results from the newlyreleased California Poverty Measure (CPM). The CPM, which is jointly produced by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, is our best estimate of economic disadvantage across and within California. It improves on the official poverty measure (OPM) and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) in ways that will be discussed in some detail below. The CPM can be used to provide county-level estimates of poverty, to explore how current policy is affecting poverty rates, and to examine the potential impact of certain proposed changes in policy. Because California will be facing key decisions in the future about how to address poverty, we need to be able to assess how proposed changes in its safety net will affect Californians. The CPM is a partial but important step in that direction. We address five questions in this brief: (1) How much poverty is there in California and how do estimates of poverty vary across the main competing measures of poverty? (2) Does poverty vary much across California counties? (3) How do patterns of poverty vary by demographic characteristics? (4) By how much do social safety net programs reduce poverty rates? And (5) Which demographic groups benefit the most from safety net programs? This brief provides only some of the key results coming out of the CPM and focuses particularly on demographic and countylevel variability in poverty. For more information about the CPM, including a detailed discussion of the impacts of the safety net, the depth of poverty, and other key findings, see our companion publication and technical appendices (available at www.ppic.org/ main/publication.asp?i=1070).

Url: https://web.stanford.edu/group/scspi/poverty/cpm/CPMBrief_CPI.pdf

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Authors: Wimer, Christopher; Mattingly, Marybeth; Danielson, Caroline

Publisher: The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Poverty and Welfare

Countries: United States