Extreme Poverty in Wealthy Nations: Evidence from France

We offer new empirical facts and insights into the determinants and dynamics of food and housing insecurity in an advanced market economy, based on a novel administrative panel data set from France’s largest food assistance charity that is unique in its compre-hensive coverage of low-income households – in particular of homeless individuals. We document several findings. First, children and teenagers are vastly over-represented in both food and housing insecurity. Second, these situations are largely transient, though a very large fraction of households is exposed to the risk of experiencing them at some point in the near future. Third, flows into and out of food and housing insecurity are asymmetric: Inflows are highly sensitive to local macroeconomic conditions and policies, whereas outflows only depend on individual characteristics, with an especially strong duration dependence. Fourth, the high inflation rates of the past few years are responsible for about half of the fast rising rates of homelessness in France since 2018.