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The Impacts of Unemployment on Alternative Poverty Rates
Author(s) -
DeFina Robert H.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.0034-6586.2004.00112.x
Subject(s) - economics , poverty , poverty rate , earnings , current population survey , unemployment , population , per capita , demographic economics , equivalence (formal languages) , econometrics , labour economics , development economics , economic growth , demography , mathematics , accounting , discrete mathematics , sociology
The analysis uses March Current Population Survey data to estimate state‐level cross‐section/time‐series models of the effects of the unemployment rate on alternative poverty rates. The measures include the official headcount rate, and alternatives based higher thresholds, revised equivalence scales and income defined as inclusive and exclusive of taxes and cash and in‐kind transfers. The estimated effects turn critically on the measurement approaches, both for the total sample population and for four population sub‐groups. For several alternative poverty rate measures, the unemployment rate has no significant impact on poverty. By contrast, real per‐capita median earnings have strong and consistently negative effects on the poverty rates of all groups studied. The findings thus provide important lessons for researchers exploring the links between economic conditions and poverty, and for policy makers developing poverty reduction strategies.