News from the PRI Library and Data Archive » Poverty and Income Inequality

Half of US kids on food stamps during childhood

Tara Murray — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:50:42 +0000

A study using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) found that nearly half of American children and 90% of black kids will be on food stamps at some point. See the Associated Press story.

Source: Rank, M.R., & Hirschl, T.A. (2009). Estimating the Risk of Food Stamp Use and Impoverishment During Childhood. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 163(11):994-999.

SIPP 2008 Wave 1 available

Tara Murray — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:19:24 +0000

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2008 Wave 1 core data is now available in SodaPop.

Penn State researchers can download SIPP data and documentation from the SodaPop web site.

PRI researchers may also access data files on our network using Windows or UNIX. Click on the “pri affiliates” tab on the SodaPop page for file locations.

SIPP 2004 Data Complete

Kiet Bang — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:02:45 +0000

All waves and topical modules for SIPP 2004 is now available To Penn State researchers on SodaPop.

Number of working poor families has increased

Tara Murray — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:56:24 +0000

The number of working poor families in the US increased between 2002 and 2006, according to a new report from the Working Poor Families Project. The report, Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short, includes state-level data and maps.

Poverty more concentrated since 2000

Tara Murray — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:35:05 +0000

Reversing a trend from the 1990s, poverty has become more concentrated from 2000 to 2005, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution (Christian Science Monitor).

For their study, authors Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube used Census data and Earned Income Tax Credit data from the IRS. They found that the number of poor people living in high poverty communities increased for the majority of metropolitan areas studied.

Citation: Kneebone, E. & Berube, A. (2008). Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000s. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

SIPP: 2004 New Data

Lisa Broniszewski — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:38:23 +0000

SIPP has released Core Waves 7 and 8 and Topical Module Waves 1-8. PRI Researchers using this data are encouraged to look at SodaPop, PRI’s Data Archive for updated holdings.

Educational gaps threaten economic mobility

Tara Murray — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:29:46 +0000

Widening gaps in educational attainment threaten economic mobility for the poor, according to a report from the Pew Charitable Trustsâ€™ Economic Mobility Project (Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog).

See also: New York Times article,Â Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America (Economic Mobility Project report)

Poverty and the brain

Tara Murray — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:55:41 +0000

Growing up poor alters brain development, and new research presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science could help ameliorate the effects of poverty on academic achievement, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Note: The Chronicle article is available online to subscribers. PRI affiliates can read the Chronicle in the PRI Library or request online access from library@pop.psu.edu.)

Citation: Farah, M.J., Betancourt, L., Shera, D.M., et al. (in press). Environmental Stimulation, Parental Nurturance and Cognitive Development in Humans. Developmental Science. (available online)

Latinobarometro available to Penn State Researchers

Kiet Bang — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:53:09 +0000

Penn State has been able to purchase a one year subscription to Latinobarometro Latinobarometro is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants. Penn State researchers interested in the survey can Click here for more information and access the survey.

Poverty increase in S. Africa

Tara Murray — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:59:12 +0000

The number of South Africans living on less than $1 a day doubled between 1996 and 2005, according to a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations (BBC News).