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Rising extreme poverty in the United States and the response of federal means-tested transfer programs

Date Added to Library: 
Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 13:08
Priority: 
high
Individual Author: 
Shaefer, H. Luke
Edin, Kathryn
Reference Type: 
Published Date: 
June 2013
Published Date (Text): 
June 2013
Publication: 
Social Service Review
Original Publication: 
May 2013
Volume: 
87
Issue Number: 
2
Page Range: 
250-268
Year: 
2013
Language(s): 
Abstract: 

This study documents an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty among US households with children between 1996 and 2011 and assesses the response of major federal means-tested transfer programs. Extreme poverty is defined using a World Bank metric of global poverty: $2 or less, per person, per day. Using the 1996–2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation SIPP, we estimate that in mid-2011, 1.65 million households with 3.55 million children were living in extreme poverty in a given month, based on cash income, constituting 4.3 percent of all nonelderly households with children. The prevalence of extreme poverty has risen sharply since 1996, particularly among those most affected by the 1996 welfare reform. Adding SNAP benefits to household income reduces the number of extremely poor households with children by 48.0 percent in mid-2011. Adding SNAP, refundable tax credits, and housing subsidies reduces it by 62.8 percent. (Author abstract)

This article is based on a working paper published by the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.

Target Populations: 
Geographic Focus: 
Page Count: 
20
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