The economic costs of childhood poverty in the United States (original) (raw)
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The Economic Costs of Poverty in the United States: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor
2000
In this paper, we review a range of rigorous research studies that estimate the average statistical relationships between children growing up in poverty and their earnings, propensity to commit crime, and quality of health later in life. We also review estimates of the costs that crime and poor health per person impose on the economy. Then we aggregate all of these average costs per poor child across the total number of children growing up in poverty in the U.S. to estimate the aggregate costs of child poverty to the U.S. economy. Our results suggest that the costs to the U.S. associated with childhood poverty total about $500 billion per year, or the equivalent of nearly 4 percent of GDP.
Measurement of Childhood Poverty in the United States and Its Enduring Influences
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2019
This paper measures childhood poverty in the United States and classifies it into three degrees based on different durations-persistent poverty, chronic transient poverty, and non-chronic transient poverty-using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data and actual poverty thresholds in the United States. Then I examine the enduring influences of different types of childhood poverty on future performance, including academic achievement, income, and criminal behavior, utilizing OLS and logistic models as well as Mincer wage functions. The regression results show that childhood poverty has a negative impact on schooling years and earnings. Living in poverty increases the likelihood of committing criminal behavior. In addition, longer spells of childhood poverty, especially persistent poverty, are shown to have stronger enduring influences compared with other types of childhood poverty. Meanwhile, while no prior studies examine the impact of short-term childhood poverty, this study shows that even a short duration of childhood poverty (non-chronic transient poverty) is associated with shorter school years completed and a higher risk of committing crime. However, it has no significant impact on adult earnings.
Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Options
The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased in 2007-continuing an upward trend dating back to 2000: In 2007, 13.3 million children were living in poverty, up from 11.6 million children in 2000. 2 The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families.
The Importance of Early Childhood Poverty
Social Indicators Research, 2012
Most poor children achieve less, exhibit more problem behaviors and are less healthy than children reared in more affluent families. We look beyond correlations such as these to a recent set of studies that attempt to assess the causal impact of childhood poverty on adult well-being. We pay particular attention to the potentially harmful effects of poverty early in childhood on adult labor market success (as measured by earnings), but also show results for other outcomes, including out-of-wedlock childbearing, criminal
Early-Childhood Poverty and Adult Attainment, Behavior, and Health
Child Development, 2010
Our paper assesses the consequences of poverty between a child's prenatal year and fifth birthday for a host of adult achievement, health, and behavior outcomes, measured as late as age 37. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and controlling for economic conditions in middle childhood and adolescence, we find statistically significant and, in some cases, quantitatively large detrimental effects of early poverty on a number of attainment-related outcomes (adult earnings, work hours, receipt of transfer income), some health outcomes (adult body mass) but not on such behavioral outcomes as out of wedlock childbearing and arrests. Most of the adult earnings effects appear to operate through adult labor supply.
Patterns of Childhood Poverty: New Challenges for Policy
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1994
Poverty takes many forms. Using data from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this article (1) distinguishes different kinds of childhood poverty, defined in terms o f the spacing, severity, and duration o f spells; and establishes the extent and distribution of childhood poverty, employing new measures that take into account both duration and severity. Some strategies for targeting assistance on particular forms of poverty are briefly considered.
The Future of Children, 1997
According to the official U.S. measure of poverty, in 1995 the child poverty rate in this country was nearly 21%, compared with an adult poverty rate of 11%. This article explores why, according to the official measure, there are so many poor children. Working from the premise that children are poor because they live with poor adults, the reasons for adult poverty are reviewed. Both economic forces and demographic trends have contributed to growing inequality of earnings among workers. That inequality coupled with stagnating real earnings has increased poverty. In addition, education, age, and race affect an individual's earning capacity; the article examines the likelihood that an individual will earn enough to keep his or her family out of poverty, given the individual's educational attainment, age, and race. The reasons for the large difference between the child and adult poverty rates are explored, using a decomposition of the poverty population to show how demographic characteristics such as higher fertility rates among poor families and the higher prevalence of singleparent families among the poor lead to substantially higher poverty rates for children than for adults. Finally, the article examines the validity of the official poverty measure and reviews how an alternative measure proposed by a National Research Council panel would address the official measure's shortcomings. If the panel's proposed measure were adopted, it would change the statistical face of poor children. It would, for example, show an increase in the proportion of poor children who live in families with two parents and a corresponding decrease in the proportion in families with only one parent, and it would show an increase in the proportion of children who live in families with at least one full-time employed adult and a corresponding decrease in the proportion in families with no adult employed full time. A lthough the public debate on poverty issues is frequently emotional and acrimonious, it is clear that an informed debate over policies to prevent or ameliorate the consequences of poverty for children requires an understanding of how poverty is measured, of the composition of the population of poor children, of the reasons for childhood poverty, and of the ability of public and private programs to address the needs of poor children. These issues are the focus of this issue of The Future of Children. To help frame the discussion of developing effective child-focused poverty policies, this article describes how poverty is officially defined in the United States, reviews recent trends in poverty according to that definition,
Child Trends, 2009
The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased in 2007-continuing an upward trend dating back to 2000: In 2007, 13.3 million children were living in poverty, up from 11.6 million children in 2000. 2 The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families.