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Both Canada and the United States are considered liberal welfare states, yet exhibit notable differences in income poverty attributed to social policy. While a more generous welfare system lifts many above income poverty, models of household financial behaviour suggest that more income from the state should displace private savings via a substitution effect. Using nationally representative wealth surveys from Canada and the US from 1998/1999 to 2016 we extend knowledge on the relationship between the welfare state and private wealth accumulation. Specifically, we study household asset poverty defined as financial asset levels that fall below three‐month adjusted income poverty threshold. Asset poverty rates varied over time in the two countries and were higher in the less generous US welfare state. Further, income transfer share was positively related to asset poverty in Canada but not in the US. Counterfactual estimates offered evidence of the substitution effect in Canada, where higher levels of transfers may crowd out private asset accumulation. Results invite further consideration of the concept of asset poverty and its relationship to welfare state characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies poverty persistence and the role of social security programmes on poverty among elderly in the US. We use a Latent Markov model to disentangle unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence. Because of its dynamic nature, unobserved heterogeneity is modelled to vary over time. This allows to capture different latent states of poverty that change over time. Result indicates the existence of three unobserved types evolving over time according to their propensity to be poor. Moreover, a strong persistence in poverty especially for women, individuals living alone and ethnic minorities is found. Finally, the estimates indicate that giving social assistance tends to reduce poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relative poverty lines are increasingly being used in poverty comparison studies. Existing methods assume that the distributions being compared are distinct with independent relative poverty lines. However, this practice may be problematic when comparing two subgroups of a population. We follow up on a recent proposal for the usage of common relative poverty lines in such cases, and develop a test for comparing poverty between subgroups of a single population, using inequality restrictions. Monte Carlo experiments are conducted in order to examine the size and power of our proposed test. We illustrate our procedure using some U.S. household income data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the influence of social welfare and tax policies on rates of chronic and transient poverty in the United States for the full population and subgroups. I use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (n = 10,210) over a recent 11-year time frame (1998-2008), with individuals categorized as poor using the Supplemental Poverty Measure. Results show that including government transfers in family resources reduces the overall transient poverty rate by more than one-sixth and the chronic poverty rate by nearly four-fifths, with a greater influence on the chronic rate in part because some individuals shift from chronic into transient poverty. Income and payroll tax liabilities have negligible influence on poverty rates net of tax credits. Medical expenses are largely associated with an increase in the transient poverty rate. Results imply that there is value to examining the effects of social policy on poverty from more than just the traditional cross-sectional perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have recently shown that the majority of patients undergoing fundoplication in the United States are women. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that nonbiological factors contribute to the decisions on surgical reflux therapy. Using State Inpatient Databases of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, we extracted annual fundoplication rates, sex distribution, age cohorts, racial background, and insurance coverage. To account for potential differences in state populations, the results were normalized and correlated with Census data, adult obesity rates, median income, poverty rates, and physician workforce within the state. Fundoplication rates varied fivefold between states, ranging from 4.1 ± 0.1 per 100 000 in New Jersey to 21.8 ± 0.4 per 100 000 in Oregon. Higher poverty rates and a higher fraction of Caucasians within a state independently predicted higher fundoplication rates. While the majority of operations were performed laparoscopically, surgical approaches also differed between states with rates of laparoscopic ranging from 52.3 ± 1.8% in Oklahoma to 87.4 ± 1.7% in Hawaii. A lower number of pediatric and Medicaid-insured patient and a higher fraction of privately insured patients best predicted higher rates of laparoscopic surgery. Our study shows significant regional variation in surgical reflux management, which cannot be explained by differences in disease mechanisms. Insurance coverage and racial background influenced the likelihood of surgery, suggesting a role of financial incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss poverty measurement, focusing on two alternatives to the current official measure: consumption poverty, and the Census Bureau's new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) that was released for the first time last year. The SPM has advantages over the official poverty measure, including a more defensible adjustment for family size and composition, an expanded definition of the family unit that includes cohabitors, and a definition of income that is conceptually closer to resources available for consumption. The SPM's definition of income, though conceptually broader than pre-tax money income, is difficult to implement given available data and their accuracy. Furthermore, income data do not capture consumption out of savings and tangible assets such as houses and cars. A consumption-based measure has similar advantages but fewer disadvantages. We compare those added to and dropped from the poverty rolls by the alternative measures relative to the current official measure. We find that the SPM adds to poverty individuals who are more likely to be college graduates, own a home and a car, live in a larger housing unit, have air conditioning, health insurance, and substantial assets, and have other more favorable characteristics than those who are dropped from poverty. Meanwhile, we find that a consumption measure compared to the official measure or the SPM adds to the poverty rolls individuals who are more disadvantaged than those who are dropped. We decompose the differences between the SPM and official poverty and find that the most problematic aspect of the SPM is the subtraction of medical out-of-pocket expenses from SPM income. Also, because the SPM poverty thresholds change in an odd way over time, it will be hard to determine if changes in poverty are due to changes in income or changes in thresholds. Our results present strong evidence that a consumption-based poverty measure is preferable to both the official income-based poverty measure and to the Supplemental Poverty Measure for determining who are the most disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, policymakers have discussed how to remedy the high poverty rates of older widows. Yet older divorced women are more likely to be poor than older widows, and historical divorce and remarriage trends suggest that in the future a larger share of retired women will be divorced. This article uses the Social Security Administration's Modeling Income in the Near Term (version 6) to project the retirement resources and well-being of divorced women. We find that Social Security benefits and retirement incomes are projected to increase for divorced women and that their poverty rates are projected to decline, due in large part to women's increasing lifetime earnings. However, not all divorced women will be equally well off; economic well-being in retirement varies by Social Security benefit type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blacks, Hispanics, and divorced women have historically experienced double-digit poverty rates in retirement, and divorce and other demographic trends will increase their representation in future retiree populations. For these reasons, we might expect an increase in the proportion of economically vulnerable divorced women in the future. This article uses the Social Security Administration's Modeling Income in the Near Term (version 6) to describe the likely characteristics, work experience, Social Security benefit status, and economic well-being of future divorced women at age 70 by race and ethnicity. Factors associated with higher retirement incomes include having a college degree; having a strong history of labor force attachment; receiving Social Security benefits; and having pensions, retirement accounts, or assets, regardless of race and ethnicity. However, because divorced black and Hispanic women are less likely than divorced white women to have these attributes, income sources, or assets, their projected average retirement incomes are lower than those of divorced white women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the chronic unemployment and poverty rates in America as of March 2013, focusing on the nation's Transitional Jobs strategy which reportedly combines wage-paid work, job skills training, and supportive services for workplace success. Case-managed social services and methods of reducing reliance on public benefits are addressed, along with job creation, unemployed U.S. military veterans, and the U.S. Pathways Back to Work Act legislative bill.