Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Is There More To Food Insecurity Among Children Than Poverty? The Importance Of Measurement, Neeraj Kaushal, Jane Waldfogel, Irwin Garfinkel, Vanessa Wight

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper examines the association between poverty and food insecurity among children using the official measure of poverty and the newsupplemental poverty measure of the Census Bureau based on a more inclusive definition of family resources and needs. Our objective is to study whether the association between food insecurity and poverty improves with a more comprehensive measure of income and needs. We find a strong and statistically significant association between income-to-needs ratio based on the official poverty metric and food insecurity among children—particularly very low food security among children. A more inclusive measure of income-to-needs-ratio, based on the supplemental poverty …

Social Spending, Taxes And Income Redistribution In Uruguay, Maximo Rossi, Nora Lustig, Marisa Bucheli, Florencia Amabile

Maximo Rossi

How much redistribution does Uruguay accomplish through social spending and taxes? How progressive are revenue collection and social spending? A standard fiscal incidence analysis shows that Uruguay achieves a nontrivial reduction in inequality and poverty when all taxes and transfers are combined. In comparison with other five countries in Latin America, it ranks first (poverty reduction) and second (inequality reduction), and first in terms of poverty reduction effectiveness and third in terms of overall (including ransfers in kind) inequality reduction effectiveness. Direct taxes are progressive and indirect taxes are regressive. Social spending on direct transfers, contributory pensions, education and health …

Ethnic Diversity And Poverty: A Dynamic Panel Study Of Illinois Counties, Ambuj Neupane

Master's Theses - Economics

Ethnic diversity’s effects on factors of economic development have been studied widely in recent years. I expand upon this research by directly studying ethnic diversity’s effects on the poverty rates within the counties of Illinois, using a dynamic panel technique devised by Blundell and Bond (1998). My results are consistent with the noted effects in previous literature, and provide extra weight towards measures of fractionalization and polarization. I conclude with policy implications and limitations which require future research.

Fiscal Decentralization And Its Effect On Poverty Evidence From Panel Data On The Lower 48 American States, Nicholas Valaris

Capstone Projects-Economics

This study examines the effect of local and state fiscal autonomy on the poverty rate in the U.S. from 1980-2000. The findings are that the gap between own revenues and own expenditures, known as Vertical Imbalances, has an optimal level at which the negative influence on poverty is at its maximum. Shifts along the Vertical Imbalances curve towards the optimal value cause reductions in the poverty rate by hundredths of a percent. Convergence towards the optimal Vertical Imbalances value is still recommended as a reduction in poverty could be achieved by incurring little to no economic cost.

Poverty In America: Why Can't We End It?, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The lowest percentage in poverty since we started counting was 11.1 percent in 1973. The rate climbed as high as 15.2 percent in 1983. In 2000, after a spurt of prosperity, it went back down to 11.3 percent, and yet 15 million more people are poor today.

At the same time, we have done a lot that works. From Social Security to food stamps to the earned-income tax credit and on and on, we have enacted programs that now keep 40 million people out of poverty. Poverty would be nearly double what it is now without these measures, according to …

The Growing Concern Of Poverty In The United States: An Exploration Of Food Prices And Poverty On Obesity Rates For Low-Income Citizens, Catherine Gillespie, Kathy Gray, Ethan Bailey, John Zivalich

Undergraduate Economic Review

Studies demonstrate the link between income and obesity, determining factors to explain the strong correlation between high body mass index and low socioeconomic status. Many focus on uncovering predictors but few use a systems approach: identifying the interaction among predictors and their relative magnitude concerning obesity. This study asks: do poverty or food price indicators have a statistically stronger relationship with obesity?

By collecting data, evaluating trends, and analyzing statistics, this study extends research by revealing a stronger relationship between obesity and food prices as opposed to obesity and poverty.

When Helping Really Helps: How To Effectively Help Without Hurting The Poor At The Bottom Of The Pyramid In Developing Countries, Latifah Kiribedda

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

The issue of poverty alleviation at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) in developing nations is a hot topic on the global platform. The staggering numbers of people living below the poverty line, coupled to the detrimental impact of extreme poverty on people in developing countries, creates a moral imperative for people to help the poor at the BOP. In response to the plight of the poor, many efforts have been put in place to help the poor in developing nations. In order to understand poverty at the BOP, in this paper, I provide a historical analysis of colonialism and …

[Review Of The Book The Idea Of Poverty: England In The Early Industrial Age], George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] One must have some knowledge of a society's conception of poverty in order to understand the existence of differing methods of poor relief over time and place. In The Idea of Poverty, Gertrude Himmelfarb presents a detailed account of England's poverty problem during the years 1750 to 1850 as seen by contemporary English economists, politicians, journalists, and novelists. She attempts to determine why the image of poverty, and of the poor, changed over those years and how the popular image of the poor influenced society's methods of relieving poverty. The result is a book that anyone concerned with the …

Double Jeopardy: Low-Wage And Low-Income Workers In Massachusetts, 1980–2009, Randy Albelda, Michael Carr

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Data reveal a growing number of Massachusetts workers who both earn low wages and live in low-income families. They face “double jeopardy”: As low-wage earners, they are least likely to receive employer-sponsored benefits, yet they are often ineligible for means-tested government anti-poverty programs.

Hunger, Ethics And The Right To Food, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

he management of hunger has to look into the issues of availability, accessibility and adequacy of food supply. From an ethical perspective, this paper argues in favour of the right to food. But, for this to become viable, the state has to come up with an appropriate and effective bill on food and nutrition security, address the issue of inadequate provisioning of storage space by state agencies leading to rotting of food grains - a criminal waste when people are dying of hunger; and rely on local level institutions involving the community, that complement the administrative structure to identify the …

International Organization And Poverty Alleviation, William F. Felice, Diana Fuguitt

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The World Trade Organization and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by Sarah Joseph, David Kinley & Jeff Waincymer. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 2009.

and

Global Poverty, Ethics and Human Rights. By Desmond McNeill & Asunción St. Clair. New York, NY: Routledge. 2009.

and

Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. By Catherine Weaver. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2008.

Social Norms, Discrete Choices, And False Dichotomies, Eric Schniter, Nathaniel Wilcox

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Eric Schniter and Nathaniel Wilcox comment on Bram Tucker's article, "Do Risk and Time Experimental Choices Represent Individual Strategies for Coping with Poverty or Conformity to Social Norms? Evidence from Rural Southwestern Madagascar", which "revisits a debate played out in Current Anthropology as to whether subsistence decisions are the result of individual strategy to cope with poverty and increase wealth... or conformity to social norms."