Measuring Poverty in the 21st Century - Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality

The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality hosted a conference on the future of poverty measurement on March 11-12 at Stanford University.

Agenda

The Validity of the SPM: Have We Got the Poverty Concept Right?

Fine Tuning the Supplemental Poverty Measure for the Next Fifty Years - Christopher “Sandy” Jencks, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Does SPM Measurement Accord with the Qualitative Experience of Poverty? - Kathryn Edin, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, The Johns Hopkins University
The Quality and Inequality of Consumption - Luigi Pistaferri, Professor of Economics, Stanford University
The Validity of the SPM and Conceptual and Practical Issues in Poverty Measurement - Bruce D. Meyer, McCormick Foundation Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

Keynote

Innovative Flash Measures of Poverty Trends - Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google, Inc.; Professor Emeritus Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Are the Thresholds Right?

The Rationale for the Current Poverty Threshold - Thesia Garner, Senior Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division of Price and Index Number Research
The Case for Measuring Extreme Poverty - Kathryn Edin, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, The Johns Hopkins University
The Case for Measuring Deep Poverty - Kathleen Short, Social Economic, and Housing Division, U.S. Census Bureau
Is the “Near Poverty” Concept Well Defined and Useful? - Katherine Newman, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor, Torrey Little Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Persisting Measurement Problems: Are We Making Headway?

Measuring Medical Expenses: MOOP in Thresholds versus MOOP Subtraction - Thesia Garner, Senior Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division of Price and Index Number Research
Census Efforts on Measuring Noncash Benefits and Necessary Expenses - Kathleen Short, Economist, Economic Characteristics, Social Economic, and Housing Division, U.S. Census Bureau
Measuring Poverty and Program Use Among Immigrants: Methods from California - Sarah Bohn, Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California
Geographically Adjusting Poverty Thresholds in Historical SPM Analyses: Issues and Future Questions - Christopher Wimer, Research Consultant, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality; Co-Director, Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia Population Research Center, Columbia University

Innovations in Poverty Measurement

Why Don’t We Measure Poverty as Frequently as We Measure Unemployment? - Charles Varner, Associate Director, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
The Administrative Turn? Using the AOS, Social Security, and Tax-Return Data to Measure Poverty - Tim Smeeding, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison and David Grusky, Barbara Kimball Browning Professor, Sociology and Director, Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University
The National Poverty Study: Sub-State Measurement and “Poverty Types” - David Grusky, Barbara Kimball Browning Professor, Sociology and Director, Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University

Local Poverty Measurement: Current Initiatives

The California Poverty Measure - Beth Mattingly, Research Consultant, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality; Director of Research on Vulnerable Families, Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire
The New York City Poverty Measure: Balancing a Research Measure with Policy and Program Needs - Jihyun Shin, Research Scientist, Poverty Research Unit, NYC Center for Economic Opportunity, Office of the Mayor, City of New York
The Wisconsin SPM Experience - Tim Smeeding, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Oregon as a New Entrant - Bruce Weber, Professor of Applied Economics, Director, Rural Studies Program, Oregon State University

Protecting and Institutionalizing the SPM

Implementing the SPM in the ACS - Trudi Renwick, Assistant Division Chief, Economic Characteristics, Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division, U.S. Census Bureau
Should State SPMs be Centralized? - Laura Wheaton, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute
Politics, Strategy, and the Future of the SPM - David Johnson, Deputy Director of PSID and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan