Suchergebnisse

THIS STUDY FINDS THAT LIFETIME CONTRIBUTIONS TO OASI BY LOW EARNERS MAKE THEM ONLY SLIGHTLY BETTER OFF THAN HAD THEY RELIED SOLELY ON SSI. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE INTERACTION OF SSI ON OASI LEAD TO SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY OF THE CURRENT OASI-SSI SYSTEM AND THE LIKELIHOOD OF CONTINUING POLITICAL SUPPORT FOR IT.

Contents -- About the Authors -- Preface -- Introduction. Taking the Definition of Poverty Seriously -- Part I. Child Poverty and Inequality at the End of the Twentieth Century -- Chapter 1. Child Poverty in Rich Countries in the 1990s: An Overview -- Chapter 2. Patterns of Child Economic Well-Being -- Chapter 3. Child Poverty and Population: Is Demography Destiny? -- Chapter 4. Periods of Poverty: How Long Are Children Poor? -- Chapter 5. Income Packaging: Market Income and the State -- Chapter 6. Child Poverty and Income Packaging in Two-Parent Families

The PSID has remained a valuable vehicle for evidence-based policy research for decades and should remain so for many more. In this short review, I cover major policy-related strengths from PSID research in the areas of event history analysis; mobility and volatility; cross national comparisons; health and health insurance; mobility into and out of poverty; the effects of parental income on children; and the use of the child development sample to broaden the PSID policy focus in new and interesting ways. I also include the emerging study of longer term intergenerational patterns of mobility and transfer, including across three generations. Finally, I take up the question of how PSID data and methods could be further improved to make the survey more valuable to public policy, focusing on administrative data linkages.

Objective. This article compares recent levels and trends in economic inequality in industrialized nations, largely those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We also examine the effects of government policies and social spending efforts on inequality.Method. We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office to measure disposable money income on an annual basis for 30 nations around the end of the 20th century. We also convert the incomes of a set of rich nations into real 2000 U.S. dollars, using a standard measure of purchasing power parity to examine absolute differences in income inequality.Results. The United States has the highest overall level of inequality of any rich OECD nation at the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, increases in the dispersion of total household income in the United States have been as large as, or larger than, those experienced elsewhere between 1979 and 2002. Government policies and social spending have lesser effects in the United States than in any other rich nation, and both low spending and low wages have a great impact on the final income distribution, especially among the nonelderly.Conclusion. We speculate on the role policy plays in the final determination of income inequality. We argue that these differences cannot be explained by demography (single parents, immigrants, elders) but are more likely to be attributed to American institutions and lack of spending effort on behalf of low‐income working families.

While all nations value low poverty, high levels of economic self-reliance, and equality of opportunity for younger persons, they differ dramatically in the extent to which they reach these goals. Most nations have remarkable similarities in the sources of social concern within each nation - those of births outside of wedlock and lone parent families; older women living alone; high unemployment; immigration pressures; low wages; and the sustainability of social expenditures in the face of rapid population aging. They also exhibit differences in the extent to which working age adults mix economic self-reliance (earned incomes), family support, and government support to avoid poverty. This paper is designed to examine these differences in greater detail. We begin by reviewing international concepts and measures of poverty, as they relate to the main measures of income and poverty used in domestic United States discourse. In so doing, we examine basic differences in aggregate measures of well-being and social expenditure, while also identifying a number of criteria that we can use to examine the success and failure of antipoverty policy in a cross-national context. Next, we present cross-national estimates of both absolute and relative well-being for several subgroups of the population, including the elderly and different types of families with children. Measures of both poverty and inequality are presented and the comparative results are noted. After examining the level and trend in poverty rates, we explore some of the factors that are correlated with national poverty rates and examine the effectiveness of government programs aimed at reducing poverty and equalizing opportunity. Specifically, we examine the effects of work, education, family structure, and social policy in achieving these outcomes. In examining these findings, we use the criteria of adequacy, self-sustainability, and cost effectiveness to identify promising international lessons for the United States. We conclude with a discussion of the relationship between policy differences and outcome differences among the several countries, and consider the implications of our analysis for research and for antipoverty policy in the United States.

Objective. This article compares recent levels & trends in economic inequality in industrialized nations, largely those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. We also examine the effects of government policies & social spending efforts on inequality. Method. We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study & the U.S. Congressional Budget Office to measure disposable money income on an annual basis for 30 nations around the end of the 20th century. We also convert the incomes of a set of rich nations into real 2000 U.S. dollars, using a standard measure of purchasing power parity to examine absolute differences in income inequality. Results. The United States has the highest overall level of inequality of any rich OECD nation at the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, increases in the dispersion of total household income in the United States have been as large as, or larger than, those experienced elsewhere between 1979 & 2002. Government policies & social spending have lesser effects in the United States than in any other rich nation, & both low spending & low wages have a great impact on the final income distribution, especially among the nonelderly. Conclusion. We speculate on the role policy plays in the final determination of income inequality. We argue that these differences cannot be explained by demography (single parents, immigrants, elders) but are more likely to be attributed to American institutions & lack of spending effort on behalf of low-income working families. Tables, Figures, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article compares recent economic inequality in industrialized nations, largely those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This research finds the United States has the highest overall level of inequality of any rich OECD nation in the mid-1990s. It also finds that the increases in the dispersion of total household income in the United States have been as large as, or larger than, those experienced elsewhere between 1979 and 2000, despite the fact that the US began the period with the highest level of inequality. The authors also look at the trend in inequality within the United States using various series from published and unpublished data to examine exactly how US inequality changed over the past several decades. Next, the authors examine the effects of government policies and social spending efforts on inequality, finding that the United States has lesser effects than any other rich nation, and that both low spending and low wages have a great impact on the final income distribution, especially among the non-elderly. The authors then are in a position to answer a number of questions. What role does policy; therefore, play in the final determination of income inequality? Can these differences be explained by demography (more single parents; more immigrants; or more elders?) or can they be attributed to American institutions and lack of spending effort on behalf of low-income families? And finally, does inequality of before tax and benefit income itself have anything to do with low social spending?