Is There Such a Thing as an Absolute Poverty Line Over Time? Evidence from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia on the Income Elasticity of the Poverty Line
Is There Such a Thing as an Absolute Poverty Line Over Time? Evidence from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia on the Income Elasticity of the Poverty Line
Abstract
This paper summarizes the extensive body of evidence for the income elasticity of the poverty line in these four countries. It also includes a brief description of the social processes that result in successive poverty lines rising in real terms as the real income of the general population rises. It makes a preliminary examination of the reasons that the U.S. poverty line was not raised in 1968-1969. Finally, it briefly discusses some institutional and sociological factors that seem to account for the extensive body of evidence about the income elasticity of the poverty line being so little known in current academic U.S. discussions about poverty lines.
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