Experimental Poverty Measures : Summary of a Workshop

The Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Research Council (NRC) convened a workshop on June 15-16, 2004, to review federal research on alternative methods for measuring poverty.

The workshop had been requested by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to evaluate progress in moving toward a new measure of poverty, as recommended by the 1995 report, Measuring Poverty: A New Approach.

Experimental Poverty Measures is the summary of that workshop.

This report discusses which components of alternative measures are methodologically sound and which might need further refinement,toward the goal of narrowing the number of alternative measures that should be considered. Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Introduction and Background2 Setting and Updating Thresholds3 Equivalence Scales4 Geographic Adjustments to Thresholds5 Medical Expenses6 Work-Related and Child Care Expenses7 Housing8 Data Issues, Other Topics, and Future ResearchReferencesAppendix A Workshop AgendaAppendix B Workshop Participants