Affiliations: [a] Population Studies Center, Gerald R. Ford School of
Public Policy, Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of Michigan | [b] National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of
Public Policy, Population Studies Center, Univ. of Michigan | [c] Institute for Social Research, Gerald R. Ford School
of Public Policy, Dept. of Economics, Univ. of Michigan
Correspondence:
[*]
Direct correspondence to Lloyd Grieger,
Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson Street, Ann
Arbor, MI 48106-1248. Tel.: +1 734 355 4534; Fax: +1 734 763 1428; E-mail:
lgrieger@umich.edu
Abstract: Despite the frequent use of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) in poverty
research, no recent studies have examined how to accurately measure long-term
trends in poverty with these data. In this paper, we describe how to accurately
measure poverty over the course of the PSID panel. We benchmark our poverty
rates with published rates from the US Census Bureau's March Current Population
Survey (CPS). The PSID time series based on poverty thresholds we developed is
more highly correlated with the CPS time series than are the rates based on the
two thresholds currently available in the PSID data file for the entire
1967–2004 period. Another PSID poverty threshold, available only from 1989
onwards, yields poverty rates that have a correlation of 0.96 with the CPS
series, about the same as the correlation when our methods for measuring poverty
are used for these years.
Keywords: Poverty rates, panel study of income dynamics, current population survey
