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The Sequential Costs Of Poverty: What Traditional Measures Overlook, Elizabeth A. Segal, Laura R. Peck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This research note proposes an addition to the poverty measurement debate. Motivated by dissatisfaction with the official poverty measure, which many scholars and practitioners share, we propose the use of sequential costs of poverty to enrich the poverty measure so that it might capture more closely the life-experiences of low-income families. After presenting some background on poverty measurement, this research note explores the conceptual framework that surrounds the notion of sequential costs. Drawing on our past research, we propose ways in which these sequential costs surface, with illustrative examples from health, employment, housing, and income maintenance.