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The Use and Misuse of Income Data and Extreme Poverty in the United States

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  • Bruce D. Meyer
  • Derek Wu
  • Victoria Mooers
  • Carla Medalia

Abstract

Recent research suggests that the share of US households living on less than $2/person/day is high and rising. We reexamine such extreme poverty by linking SIPP and CPS data to administrative tax and program data. We find that more than 90% of those reported to be in extreme poverty are not, once we include in-kind transfers, replace survey reports of earnings and transfer receipt with administrative records, and account for ownership of substantial assets. More than half of all misclassified households have incomes from the administrative data above the poverty line, and many have middle-class measures of material well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu & Victoria Mooers & Carla Medalia, 2021. "The Use and Misuse of Income Data and Extreme Poverty in the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(S1), pages 5-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/711227
    DOI: 10.1086/711227
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    Cited by:

    1. Cicala, Steve, 2021. "The incidence of extreme economic stress: Evidence from utility disconnections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    2. Dionissi Aliprantis & Daniel R. Carroll & Eric Young, 2019. "The Dynamics of the Racial Wealth Gap," Working Papers 19-18R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 29 Nov 2022.
    3. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Carroll, Daniel R. & Young, Eric R., 2024. "What explains neighborhood sorting by income and race?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Jeehoon Han & Bruce D. Meyer & James X. Sullivan, 2022. "Real-Time Poverty, Material Well-Being, and the Child Tax Credit," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 817-846.
    5. Paul Vinod Khiatani & Minnie Heep Ching She & Wing Hong Chui, 2021. "Child Poverty in an Affluent City: Trends and Risk Factors in Hong Kong Between 2011 and 2016," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(6), pages 2325-2346, December.

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