Evaluating the Success of the War on Poverty since 1963 Using an Absolute Full-Income Poverty Measure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Burkhauser, Richard V.; Corinth, Kevin; Elwell, James; Larrimore, Jeff
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; IZA Institute Labor Economics; American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/725705
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1-47
• 关键词: health-insurance; INEQUALITY; cost

摘要

We evaluate progress in the War on Poverty as President Lyndon B. Johnson defined it, which established a 20% baseline poverty rate and adopted an absolute standard. While the official poverty rate fell from 19.5% in 1963 to 10.5% in 2019, our absolute full-income poverty measure-which uses a fuller income measure and updates thresholds only for inflation-fell from 19.5% to 1.6%. However, we also show that relative poverty reductions have been modest. Additionally, government dependence increased over this time, with the share of working-age adults receiving under half their income from market sources more than doubling.