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The Cost of Living and the Geographic Distribution of Poverty

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  • Jolliffe, Dean

Abstract

The prevalence of poverty has been greater in nonmetro areas than in metro areas in every year since the 1960s when poverty rates were first officially recorded. Accordingly, Federal funds for social assistance programs and community development have favored nonmetro areas. This study suggests that adjusting poverty measures to account for cost-of-living differences between metro and nonmetro areas reverses that ranking. Once adjusted for cost-of-living differences using the Fair Market Rents index, metro poverty is greater than nonmetro poverty in terms of prevalence, depth, and severity over the entire 1991-2002 study period.

Suggested Citation

  • Jolliffe, Dean, 2006. "The Cost of Living and the Geographic Distribution of Poverty," Economic Research Report 7254, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersrr:7254
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.7254
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Foster, James E & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1991. "Subgroup Consistent Poverty Indices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 687-709, May.
    2. Ravallion, Martin & Bidani, Benu, 1994. "How Robust Is a Poverty Profile?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 8(1), pages 75-102, January.
    3. Dumond, J Michael & Hirsch, Barry T & Macpherson, David A, 1999. "Wage Differentials across Labor Markets and Workers: Does Cost of Living Matter?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 577-598, October.
    4. Dean Jolliffe, 2003. "On the Relative Well-Being of the Nonmetropolitan Poor: An Examination of Alternate Definitions of Poverty during the 1990s," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(2), pages 295-311, October.
    5. Reeder, Richard J., 1996. "How Would Rural Areas Fare Under Block Grants?," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33609, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
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    10. Dean Jolliffe, 2001. "Estimating Sampling Variance from the Current Population Survey: A Synthetic Design Approach to Correcting Standard Errors," Econometrics 0110006, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Oct 2001.
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    12. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    13. Dean Jolliffe & Anastassia Semykina, 2000. "Robust standard errors for the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke class of poverty indices," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(51).
    14. Dumond, J Michael & Hirsch, Barry T & Macpherson, David A, 1999. "Wage Differentials across Labor Markets and Workers: Does Cost of Living Matter?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 577-598, October.
    15. Dean Jolliffe, 2003. "On the Relative Well‐Being of the Nonmetropolitan Poor: An Examination of Alternate Definitions of Poverty during the 1990s," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(2), pages 295-311, October.
    16. Nord, Mark & Cook, Peggy, 1995. "Measuring Poverty: Do the Proposed Revisions of the Poverty Measure Matter for Rural America?," Staff Reports 278786, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
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    19. Dean Jolliffe, 2006. "Poverty, Prices, and Place: How Sensitive is the Spatial Distribution of Poverty to Cost of Living Adjustments?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(2), pages 296-310, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tiehen, Laura & Jolliffe, Dean & Gundersen, Craig, 2012. "How State Policies Influence the Efficacy of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Reducing Poverty," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124937, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Vogel, Stephen & Miller, Cristina & Ralston, Katherine, 2021. "Impact of USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Rural and Urban Economies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," USDA Miscellaneous 314934, United States Department of Agriculture.
    3. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S. & Ali, Kamar & Olfert, M. Rose, 2009. "Agglomeration spillovers and wage and housing cost gradients across the urban hierarchy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 126-140, June.
    4. Tiehen, Laura & Jolliffe, Dean & Gundersen, Craig, 2012. "Alleviating Poverty in the United States: The Critical Role of SNAP Benefits," Economic Research Report 262233, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Emery N. Castle & JunJie Wu & Bruce A. Weber, 2011. "Place Orientation and Rural–Urban Interdependence," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 179-204.
    6. Åsa Mukhopadhyay & John M. Shingler & Theodore R. Alter & Jill Findeis, 2011. "Determining Eligibility for Poverty‐Based Assistance Programs: Comparing the Federally Established Poverty Level with the Self Sufficiency Standard for Pennsylvania," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(3), pages 1-24, September.
    7. Angle, John & Nielsen, Francois & Scalas, Enrico, 2009. "The Kuznets Curve and the Inequality Process," MPRA Paper 16058, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 29 Jun 2009.

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