Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation HUMAN SERVICES POLICY

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Income & Poverty

[ Publications | Ongoing Work | Related Links ]

See also:  The “Green Book” by the Committe on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Publications

• HHS Poverty Guidelines, Research, and Measurement web site.
  This site contains the current and past poverty guidelines, which are used to determine eligibility for a number of government programs, as well as research papers, references, and poverty-related information links.
• Measures of Material Hardship: Final Report, April 2004.
  This report summarizes what is known about the measurement of material hardship and its application to research with low-income families with children. It discusses challenges in defining and measuring material hardship, reviews how such measures have been in recent research, and presents analyses of data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The report, prepared by Tammy Ouellette, Nancy Burstein, David Long, and Erik Beecroft of Abt Associates, is a follow-up to an ASPE-sponsored roundtable meeting. Full Report in PDF format.
• The Interactions of Workers and Firms in the Low-Wage Labor Market, December 2002.
  This paper presents an analysis of workers who have a history of persistently low earnings in the past. Some of these workers manage to escape from this low-earning status over subsequent years, while many do not. Using data from the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) program at the U.S. Census Bureau, the study analyzes the characteristics of workers as well as employers that enable some low-wage workers to improve their earnings status over time. This report was prepared by Fredrik Andersson, Harry Holzer, and Julia Lane of the Census Bureau and the Urban Institute.
• Study to Examine UI Eligibility Among Former TANF Recipients: Evidence from New Jersey, November 2002.
  This study examines the extent to which former TANF recipients who leave welfare and find jobs would be potentially eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) in case of job loss, considering both monetary and nonmonetary eligibility, as well as potential benefit levels. The study also examines how many former TANF recipients who found jobs and eventually lost jobs actually file UI claims and receive payments. The report, prepared by Anu Rangarajan, Carol Razafindrakoto, and Walter Corson of Mathematica Policy Research, is based on 2,000 welfare recipients who received TANF in New Jersey during the first 18 months under the new welfare rules, between July 1997 and December 1998.
• Studies of Welfare Populations, Data Collection and Research Issues, 2002.
  The 14 papers in this volume are intended as a guide and reference tool for researchers and program administrators seeking to improve the availability and quality of data on welfare and low-income populations for state-level, as well as national-level, analysis. The papers resulted from an ASPE-funded Panel Study with the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academy of Sciences, to evaluate the design of current, proposed, and future studies of the effects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Prepared by Michele Ver Ploeg, Robert A. Moffitt, and Constance F. Citro, editors.
• Transition Events in the Dynamics of Poverty, September 2002.
  This project addressed transition events associated with people entering and exiting poverty using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The study found that poverty entries and exits changed over the past two decades, with an increase in both poverty entries and exits (i.e., "cycling") in the mid 1990s. Descriptive analysis shows that individuals who experience a shift in household structure (i.e., from a two-parent to a single female household, or vice versa) are the most likely to enter or exit poverty; however, when controlling for important demographic and economic factors, the likelihood of entering or exiting poverty is highest for individuals experiencing employment shifts. Signe-Mary McKernan and Caroline Ratcliffe of the Urban Institute prepared the report.
• How Well Have Rural and Small Metropolitan Labor Markets Absorbed Welfare Recipients?, April 2001.
  This report examines the impact of welfare reform on 12 rural and small metropolitan areas around the country. It identifies changes in wages and employment for the low-skill labor force over two periods: 1993 to 1996, and 1996 to 1998, to determine the effect of the movement of welfare recipients to work. The report was prepared by The Lewin Group.
• The Low-Wage Labor Market:  Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Self-Sufficiency, December 1999.
  In this volume, experts in labor market analysis synthesize the current literature on the low-wage labor market and highlight policy implications flowing from their review.  Demetra Smith Nightingale, Urban Institute, and Kelleen Kaye, ASPE, edited the volume of nine papers.
• Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment (SIME/DIME), May 1983.
  This report summarizes the Final Report of the SIME/DIME negative income tax experiments.  While the results on marital stability were the most controversial at the time, the labor supply effects have been of more enduring interest.  The labor supply results are quite complex:  the average annual reduction in hours worked was very roughly 9% (men) or 20% (women), but most people did not change their work effort at all, rather a small number reduced their work effort a relatively large amount.  Even those that did reduce their work effort, did not reduce the hours worked on a particular job, but rather lengthened the time between jobs.  The Overview explains in detail these and many other findings from these major social experiments.  Written by staff of the Office of Income Security Policy [now Human Services Policy] of ASPE.

[ Go to:  Publications | Ongoing Work | Related Links ]

Ongoing Work

• Wage Progression and the Dynamics of the Low-Wage Labor Market
• The Effects of the Work Pays Demonstration, EITC Expansions, and the Business Cycle on the Labor Market Behavior of the California Caseload
• How Low-Wage Working Families Cope as Parents and Workers
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Core Support and Expanded Sample for Child Supplement
• Household Definitions
• National and Area Poverty Research Centers

[ Go to:  Publications | Ongoing Work | Related Links ]

Related Links

• Census Bureau’s Poverty web site
• The following organizations have received support from ASPE to conduct and report on research related to poverty:
  • The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin
  • The Joint Center for Poverty Research of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago
  • The National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan
  • The Kentucky Center for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky
  • The RUPRI Rural Poverty Research Center at the University of Missouri