Poverty Measurement and Trends

The Poverty Research Group will build on and advance the new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) as well as other new poverty measurement tools. It will do so by (a) developing measurements of poverty at the city and local levels, (b) developing a method for more frequent updating of poverty and hardship measures, (c) assessing poverty in ways that better reflect whether minimum standards of health care and child care are being met, (d) developing a new protocol for measuring trends in the everyday experience of poverty, and (e) developing “stress test” measures that reveal when households are at risk of falling into poverty. This RG will be co-led by Kathryn Edin (Professor of Public Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School) and David Betson (Public Policy and Economics, University of Notre Dame).