New for Poverty Studies

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008

2009-09-15T15:02:59Z

U.S. Census Bureau.
Available online.
"This report presents data on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States based on information collected in the 2009 and earlier Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau." This link goes to the press release, which includes links to a PDF copy of the report and to data tables.
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Low-Income Women's Experiences With Food Programs, Food Spending, and Food-Related Hardships: Evidence From Qualitative Data

2009-09-14T21:21:29Z

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
Available online.
"This study examines the economic coping strategies of low-income families, using data collected through qualitative interviews conducted in 2006-08 with 35 low-income women residing in the Detroit metropolitan area."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood: What Every Policymaker Should Know

2009-08-24T12:33:31Z

National Center for Children and Poverty.
Available online.
"The early years of life present a unique opportunity to lay the foundation for healthy development. It is a time of great growth and of vulnerability. Research on early childhood has underscored the impact of the first five years of a child's life on his/her emotional and social development. Negative early experiences can impair children's mental health and effect their cognitive, behavioral, social and emotional development."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Suburban Poverty and the Health Care Safety Net

2009-08-17T15:51:49Z

Center for Studying Health System Change.
Available online.
"Although suburban poverty has increased in the past decade, the availability of health care services for low-income and uninsured people in the suburbs has not kept pace... low-income people living in suburban areas face significant challenges accessing care because of inadequate transportation, language barriers and lack of awareness of health care options."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Expenditures on Children by Families, 2008

2009-08-12T13:27:50Z

U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Available online.
Popularly known as Cost of Raising a Child. "Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided estimates of expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report presents the most recent estimates for husband-wife and single-parent families..."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food--Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences

2009-07-28T18:05:03Z

U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Available online.
"This report fills a request for a study of food deserts--areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food -- from the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. The report summarizes findings of a national-level assessment of the extent and characteristics of food deserts, analysis of the consequences of food deserts, lessons learned from related Federal programs, and a discussion of policy options for alleviating the effects of food deserts."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including this subject listing.

Rockbridge Poverty Assessment 2008

2009-06-25T14:09:19Z

Shepard Poverty Program, Washington and Lee University.
Available online.
Report authored by two W&L students attempts to address poverty-related issues in the Lexington-Rockbridge area by "accurately representing poverty and views of poverty in the Rockbridge area; determining the size, extent, and duration of the problem; describing and evaluating existing service delivery mechanisms; suggesting areas for cooperation, coordination, and integration between governmental and non-governmental organizations; and offering suggestions for future community-based research endeavors."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

Measuring Poverty in the United States

2009-06-15T11:56:09Z

National Center for Children in Poverty.
Available online.
"This fact sheet discusses how the U.S. government measures poverty, why the current measure is inadequate, and what alternative ways exist to measure economic hardship."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

Employment Characteristics of Families

2009-06-09T14:23:58Z

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Available online.
"The share of families with an unemployed member rose from 6.3 percent in 2007 to 7.8 percent in 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today... These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are
collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

The Current Economic and Financial Crisis: A Gender Perspective

2009-05-29T14:47:40Z

Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Available online.
"Widespread economic recessions and protracted financial crises have been documented as setting back gender equality and other development goals in the past. In the midst of the current global crisis -- often referred to as "the Great Recession" -- there is grave concern that progress made in poverty reduction and women's equality will be reversed."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

The Fiscal Effects of Investing in High-Quality Preschool Programs

2009-05-21T14:39:47Z

Brookings Institution.
Available online.
"Randomized treatment-control experiments suggest large returns to investments in prekindergarten education. Several studies consider the social benefits of such investments, but none have considered the full potential gains to government budgets... we find that both programs would pay back in reduced costs and increased revenues in excess of three-fourths of their costs within a seventy-five year budget window. Both programs would eventually reap a positive return for government budgets if policymakers were sufficiently patient."
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

Library Subscriptions Cuts

2009-05-04T16:53:07Z

I hope you have read Merrily Taylor's April 29 letter about the upcoming 12% reduction in the W&L University Library's subscriptions budget.
In short, this ain't going to be easy. We are working on the situation and have come up with a a first wave of cancellations, which include:

Bibliography of Asian Studies
Brill's New Pauly (print subscription)
Global Books in Print
International Medieval Bibliography (print subscription)
Press Display
Pro and Con Online
Resources for College Libraries
Writers Directory
World of Learning

microfilm subscriptions to:
Business Week
Forbes
New Yorker
Science News

The above gets us about 1/3 of the way to our needed cuts, and the process will get only more difficult. Please be assured that we will consult with you before considering the cancellation of any title which might directly affect you.
Please let me know if you have questions or comments.

Dick Grefe

Profile of the Working Poor, 2007

2009-03-17T13:21:50Z

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / U.S. Census Bureau.
Available online.
Latest edition of this annual publication reveals that "although the nation's poor were primarily children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year, 7.5 million were among the 'working poor.'"
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2008

2009-03-17T13:20:17Z

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / U.S. Census Bureau.
Available online.
Periodic collection of data includes ten tables.
Links will be maintained in several locations in the library Web site, including here.

Poverty Research Guides

2009-03-11T17:49:28Z

I have been working with a couple students in the Poverty Seminar this term on their research topics.
Both topics are challenging, but for different reasons.

One student would like to research U.S. television news coverage of poverty in foreign countries, and here is the research guide we came up with.

Another student is looking into discrimination in the U.S. criminal justice system, especially in sentencing. Here is that research guide.