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Poverty and the Incidence of Material Hardship, Revisited
Author(s) -
Iceland John,
Kovach Claire,
Creamer John
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12922
Subject(s) - poverty , demographic economics , economics , socioeconomics , incidence (geometry) , demography , economic growth , sociology , physics , optics
Objective We examine trends in seven types of material hardship, such as food and housing hardships, and how their incidence by poverty status changed over the 1992–2011 period. Method We use data from multiple panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation and logistic regressions to examine these relationships. Results We find declines in four of the seven hardships, with little change or moderate increases for the others. Declines were larger for hardships more dependent on longer term income flows, while those more sensitive to short‐term income fluctuations declined by less (or increased). Notably, declines in hardship were most evident among the lowest income groups over the period. Conclusion That short‐term hardships did not decline suggests that income volatility poses an important challenge for many households. Larger declines in hardship among the lowest income groups suggest a greater underreporting of income over time and the presence of family resources not comprehensively counted in the official poverty measure.