The War on Poverty, instituted in 1965 during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, was one of the chief elements of that president's Great Society initiative. This book describes and assesses the major social science research effort that grew up with, and in part because of, these programs. Robert H. Haveman's objective is to illuminate the process by which social and political developments have an impact on the direction of progress in the social sciences. Haveman identifies the policy measures most closely tied to the War on Poverty and the Great Society and describes the nature of these policies and their growth from 1965 to 1980. He examines the extent and growth of resources devoted to the poverty-related research that accompanied these programs, and assesses the impact of the growth in this research commitment over the 1965-1980 period. Haveman's was the first full overview of recent poverty-related research and an overview of methodological developments in the social sciences in the post-1965 period which were stimulated by the antipoverty effort.
In spite of an unprecedented period of growth and prosperity, the poverty rate in the United States remains high relative to the levels of the early 1970s and relative to those in many industrialized countries today. Understanding Poverty brings the problem of poverty in America to the fore, focusing on its nature and extent at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Looking back over the four decades since the nation declared war on poverty, the authors ask how the poor have fared in the market economy, what government programs have and have not accomplished, and what remains to be done. They help us understand how changes in the way the labor market operates, in family structure, and in social welfare, health, and education policies have affected trends in poverty. Most significantly, they offer suggestions for changes in programs and policies that hold real promise for reducing poverty and income inequality.
Earnings Capacity, Poverty, and Inequality describes the development and application of a way to measure economic status that will avoid some mistakes occurring in methods of measurement. The book reviews the concept of earnings capacity through different measures of economic status. The authors discuss the procedures used in estimating family revenue, sources of data, and inherent weaknesses in such measures. They consider the degree to which different groups classified by age, sex, race, or economic status use their earnings capacity. The authors compare income utilization of those who are considered poor using both measures of earning capacity and current income. Then, a common government and academic policy known as the target efficient — the proportion of total benefits allocated to poor families — is discussed. The authors cite two important factors: 1) estimates of target efficiency are affected by how poverty is defined and 2) target efficiency of transfer programs changes when the economic status method is used instead of the income method. The authors also examine the effects of labor market discrimination on the earning differences between two races. The text will prove useful for sociologists, psychologists, economists, and students of political science and population demographics.
In this study, the authors develop an indicator of the value of human capital stock held by the nation's working-age populaiton. They then use that indicator to assess the utilization of the nation's human capital stock overall and by a number of demographic subgroups. This serves to complement the many existing indicators that measure the U.S. economy's capital utilization.
The War on Poverty, instituted in 1965 during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, was one of the chief elements of that president's Great Society initiative. This book describes and assesses the major social science research effort that grew up with, and in part because of, these programs. Robert H. Haveman's objective is to illuminate the process by which social and political developments have an impact on the direction of progress in the social sciences. Haveman identifies the policy measures most closely tied to the War on Poverty and the Great Society and describes the nature of these policies and their growth from 1965 to 1980. He examines the extent and growth of resources devoted to the poverty-related research that accompanied these programs, and assesses the impact of the growth in this research commitment over the 1965-1980 period. Haveman's was the first full overview of recent poverty-related research and an overview of methodological developments in the social sciences in the post-1965 period which were stimulated by the antipoverty effort.
The Economic Impacts of Tax—Transfer Policy: Regional and Distributional Effects deals with evaluating proposed income-transfer policies through tax modeling. The book analyzes the direct and indirect effects of two variants of a negative income tax plan. These are the standard negative income tax and the Family Assistance Plan. By studying the indirect effects of income-maintenance programs on industries, occupations, and different regions, the authors point to understanding the effectiveness of alternative income-maintenance programs. Proposed changes in national taxes and transfer policies aim to achieve income redistribution. In their studies and models, the authors noted that the full impact of these tax policies throughout the income spectra covering different income classes, industries, occupations, and regions is different from that gathered from observations involving the direct effects of these schemes. The authors cite some policy implications resulting from their study, such as the redistributional impacts of direct tax-transfer scheme are not as efficient as expected and that increasing the demand for low-skilled workers and improving their job qualities is one way of improving income distribution. The text is valuable for economists and government policymakers in the finance and labor sectors, as well as for sociologists and political economists.
Despite its enormous wealth, the United States leads the industrialized world in poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged unravels this disturbing paradox by offering a unique and radically different understanding of American poverty. It debunks many of our most common myths about the poor, while at the same time provides a powerful new framework for addressing this enormous social and economic problem. Mark Robert Rank vividly shows that the fundamental causes of poverty are to be found in our economic structure and political policy failures, rather than individual shortcomings or attitudes. He establishes for the first time that a significant percentage of Americans will experience poverty during their adult lifetimes, and firmly demonstrates that poverty is an issue of vital national concern. Ultimately, Rank provides us with a new paradigm for understanding poverty, and outlines an innovative set of strategies that will reduce American poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged represents a profound starting point for rekindling a national focus upon America's most vexing social and economic problem.
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