Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that more than 90 percent of people who had previously been classified as living in extreme poverty were actually misclassified.
The number of people deemed to be living in extreme poverty was significantly inflated due to a combination of misreporting on surveys as well as a lack of accurate administrative data.
Now, new data "Allows us to re-examine rates of extreme poverty," which NBER defines as "Living on less than $2/person/day." It turns out the actual percentage of U.S. households living in extreme poverty is 0.24 percent.
New research shows "More than half of all misclassified households have incomes above the poverty line" entirely.
The authors certainly don't deny that extreme poverty is still an issue, a.nd they point out that their survey data "Excludes homeless individuals and institutionalized populations." But their research shows that the number of people in extreme poverty is less of a concern than had been previously believed.
In the end, our best estimate of the extreme poverty rate is 0.24% among households and 0.11% among individuals," state the paper authors, adding that t.hey "Suspect the true extreme poverty rate is lower, given the evidence of survey underreporting for many income sources."
The composition of extremely poor households also differs from common understandings of it: "Among the 285,000 households left in extreme poverty, 90% are made up of single individuals. Households with multiple childless individuals make up the other 10% of the extreme poor. Strikingly, after implementing all adjustments, households with children have incomes below $2/person/day."
https://reason.com/2019/06/05/study-shows-that-extreme-poverty-statistics-have-been-overestimated-especially-among-families-with-children/
The number of people deemed to be living in extreme poverty was significantly inflated due to a combination of misreporting on surveys as well as a lack of accurate administrative data.
Now, new data "Allows us to re-examine rates of extreme poverty," which NBER defines as "Living on less than $2/person/day." It turns out the actual percentage of U.S. households living in extreme poverty is 0.24 percent.
New research shows "More than half of all misclassified households have incomes above the poverty line" entirely.
The authors certainly don't deny that extreme poverty is still an issue, a.nd they point out that their survey data "Excludes homeless individuals and institutionalized populations." But their research shows that the number of people in extreme poverty is less of a concern than had been previously believed.
In the end, our best estimate of the extreme poverty rate is 0.24% among households and 0.11% among individuals," state the paper authors, adding that t.hey "Suspect the true extreme poverty rate is lower, given the evidence of survey underreporting for many income sources."
The composition of extremely poor households also differs from common understandings of it: "Among the 285,000 households left in extreme poverty, 90% are made up of single individuals. Households with multiple childless individuals make up the other 10% of the extreme poor. Strikingly, after implementing all adjustments, households with children have incomes below $2/person/day."
https://reason.com/2019/06/05/study-shows-that-extreme-poverty-statistics-have-been-overestimated-especially-among-families-with-children/
No comments:
Post a Comment