Poverty and the Distribution of Material Hardship

The relationship between income and material hardship

“…Using the 1996 SIPP, Iceland and Bauman (2007) find that poverty spells are associated with hardship, but when they control for a family's average income while not in poverty, the magnitude of this association is reduced. 7 Mayer and Jencks (1989) find that variation in permanent income does not explain variation in hardship, but their measure of permanent income is an average over just two periods. This paper extends the existing literature in several ways.…”

“…2 Nonetheless, past research finds a weak relationship between income and hardship. Mayer and Jencks (1989), finding that current income explains only 14 percent of the variation in the number of material hardships a family experiences, conclude that income poverty is not a reliable proxy for material hardship. 3 Similarly, Short (2005) notes that poor families and those experiencing material hardships are distinct groups.…”

Financial Shocks, Liquid Assets, and Material Hardship in Low- and Moderate-Income Households: Differences by Race

“…Having access to at least $500 influenced material hardship equivalent to a threefold increase in household income (Mayer and Jencks 1989). Among households experiencing a financial shock, asset-poor households are 23 percentage points more likely to face material hardship than non-asset-poor families (McKernan et al 2009).…”

“…At HFS2, participants were asked, BWas there a time since you took the last survey when you…^followed by (1) Bdid not pay the full amount of the rent or mortgage because you could not afford it^; (2) B skipped paying a bill or paid a bill late because you did not have enough money^; (3) Bneeded to see a doctor or go to the hospital but did not go because you could not afford it^; (4) Bneeded to see a dentist but did not go because you could not afford it^; (5) Bcould not fill or postponed filling a prescription for drugs when they were needed because you could not afford it^; and (6) Bcould not afford the type or amount of food you wanted.^These measures were informed by Beverly's (2001) definition of hardship as difficulty meeting basic living needs and by prior use of similar measures by Mayer and Jencks (1989) and in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (Ouellette et al 2004). Responses were coded B1^for yes and B0^for no.…”

Income, Deprivation, and Economic Strain. An Analysis of the European Community Household Panel

“…Various studies of different industrialised countries have indeed found a substantial proportion of those on low incomes not to be suffering from deprivation -as measured by various non-monetary indicators -while some households above income poverty lines are experiencing such deprivation. These include Townsend (1979), Mack and Lansley (1985) and Gordon et al (1996) with British data, Mayer & Jencks (1988) for the USA, Callan, Nolan, & Whelan (1993) and a&b with Irish data, (Muffels 1993) with Dutch data, and Hallerod (1995) for Sweden. Even where a variety of deprivation dimensions are distinguished and one focuses on those which might be expected to relate most closely to current income, major discrepancies between income and deprivation are still found (Muffels 1993 ).…”