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AbstractAny serious student of poverty understands the many weaknesses of the official poverty measure. In response to these concerns, the National Academy of Sciences issued recommendations to improve the official poverty measure. In addition, the Census Bureau has undertaken a vast amount of research to improve our official poverty series. The methodology used in this analysis incorporates as many of those recommendations as possible to examine the change in poverty from 1979 to 2000. Compared to this methodology, the official poverty measure understates dramatically the reduction in poverty over time.

Any serious student of poverty understands the many weaknesses of the official poverty measure. In response to these concerns, the National Academy of Sciences issued recommendations to improve the official poverty measure. In addition, the Census Bureau has undertaken a vast amount of research to improve our official poverty series. The methodology used in this analysis incorporates as many of those recommendations as possible to examine the change in poverty from 1979 to 2000. Compared to this methodology, the official poverty measure understates dramatically the reduction in poverty over time.

AbstractDuring the late 1990s, there was a notable shift in child living arrangements toward two‐parent households and away from single parenthood. Whether due to economic factors, declining teen birth rates, welfare reform, or some other cultural cause or a combination of these factors, something happened in the 1990s that stabilized marriage rates and led to declines in single‐parent households. There was also considerable hope that the federal welfare reforms enacted in 1996 might be responsible for the change in these trends. However, since 2000, while the downward trend in teen births continues, the gains in percentage of children living with two parents have been virtually eliminated. This article carefully documents these recent trends, examines the relationship of recessions on child living arrangements, and concludes that it is impossible to disentangle the role of welfare reform from its broader economic, policy, and demographic context.

An examination of public policy making on the poverty issue in the US in the wake of President Reagan's 1981 budget program, which reduced spending in the major antipoverty programs. Focus is on the key role of the Committee on Ways & Means, which, through an ongoing (albeit ad hoc) education effort, has gathered, analyzed, & disseminated information about poverty & provided evidence of the adverse impact of the 1981 reductions on the poor. Several examples of the Committee's education program are described, & it is concluded that they have played an important role in the successes achieved thus far in the war against poverty, including: partial reversal of the 1981 reductions, tax changes to help low-income families, & a welfare reform bill. Modified HA

AbstractThe conventional wisdom is that the 1996 federal welfare reform law has been a stunning success. Welfare caseloads have declined significantly and employment among disadvantaged single mothers has increased more than anticipated. Also, more low‐income children were living with married couples in the late 1990s. However, welfare reform was enacted in the midst of exceptional economic, demographic, and other policy changes and it is impossible to disentangle the impact of federal welfare reform from these other factors. This article describes these factors and puts the income gains and losses among families with children between 1996 and 2000 into the historical context of the past twenty‐five years. This analysis provides substantial evidence that welfare reform may have "worked" for many low‐income families with children while failing other low‐income families. Furthermore, despite recent increases in poverty following the 2001 recession, welfare caseloads continued to decline, indicating a fundamental flaw in what has traditionally been a countercyclical program. Data also suggest that the significant increase over the 1990s in the share of low‐income children living with married couples has been reversed following the recent recession. These findings suggest that the 1996 welfare law needs to be considerably retooled.