Poverty Dynamics in Eight Countries

Despite very different macroeconomic conditions, demographic structures and degrees of income inequality, favorable income changes among low-income families with children were widespread and strikingly similar across the eight countries in our study. In most European countries, the combination of modest inequality and extensive mobility among the poor enable virtually all families to avoid relative income deprivation at least occasionally. However, even substantial mobility among the poor in the United States could not elevate the living standards of one in seven white and two in five black families to a level that was half that enjoyed by a typical American family. Coauthors are Bjorn Gustafsson, Richard Hauser, Gunther Schmauss, Hans Messinger, Ruud Muffels, Brian Nolan, and Jean-Claude Ray.