The Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis is one of three
federally designated centers whose mission is to facilitate
non-partisan academic research on poverty in the
U.S., disseminate this research, and train the next
generation of poverty scholars. Our research agenda
includes four themed areas of focus: labor markets and poverty,
children and intergenerational transmission of poverty, the
non-traditional safety net, and immigration.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If a
minimum wage worker is employed full-time (forty hours per week
for 52 weeks), thatworker would earn $15,080
annually.
The Census Bureau reports poverty rates for current
workers aged 16 and older. In 2010,
among all workers aged 16 and older the poverty rate
as 7.0 percent unchanged from 2009.
In 2010 (the most recent year for which statistics have been
compiled), 46.2 million people in the
United States were in poverty and the nation’s official poverty
rate was 15.1%. This was the fourth consecutive
annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which
poverty estimates have been published.
There are two official measures of poverty: poverty
guidelines and poverty
thresholds. Both of these measures are
intended to identify the level of income necessary to meet basic
needs.
In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that around 46 million
or one in seven residents lived in poverty. However, the
very term “poverty” continues to evoke debates on what it means
to be poor.
Ideological, political, and methodological tensions make it
extremely challenging to reach a consensus on the most
appropriate way to measure poverty in a given society. So how do
we distinguish between the poor and the non-poor?
In the recent recession, unemployment nearly doubled to 9.5
percent by mid-2009. This figure is powerful in and of
itself, but does not tell the whole story.
The full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the
coming years will bring many changes in the level of and process
for access to health care among poor and working class
Americans. In November 2013, the Center for Poverty
Research at the University of California, Davis will host an
interdisciplinary conference focusing on research that provides
insight and background into likely effects of the ACA on low
income individuals and their families. Specific questions
of interest include, but are not limited to:
Last Day to RSVP: Friday, May 24, 2013. Please complete
the form below.
Poverty is inextricably linked with low levels of economic
resources and high levels of family stress. Emerging research
indicates that children may be particularly affected by these
conditions.
This interdisciplinary conference will explore the myriad effects
of early life poverty and the pathways by which it impacts later
life outcomes.
Dr. Chris Benner is an Associate Professor of Community and
Regional Development, and Chair of the Geography Graduate Group
at the University of California, Davis. His research
focuses on the relationships between technological change,
regional development, and the structure of economic opportunity,
focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work
and employment patterns.
Ann Huff Stevens received her Ph.D. from the University of
Michigan in 1995. Her research interests include the incidence
and effects of job loss, understanding connections between
economic shocks and health, and poverty dynamics.
1153 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Gail Goodman received her degree in Developmental Psychology from
UCLA in 1977. Her areas of research expertise include welfare
recipients, foster care, and the intergenerational transmission
of attachment insecurity.
Marianne Page received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan
in 1995. Her poverty related research focuses on
intergenerational mobility and the impact of social programs on
children’s outcomes.
1138 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
J. Edward Taylor received his degree in Agricultural and Resource
Economics from UC Berkeley in 1984. His research interests
include economic development, immigration, and rural poverty.
2107 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Hilary Hoynes received her degree in Economics from Stanford
University in 1992. She specializes in the study of poverty,
inequality, and the impacts of government tax and transfer
programs on low income families.
1152 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Leticia Saucedo received her degree, cum laude, from
Harvard Law School in 1996. Her research centers on employment
and immigration law, immigrants in low-wage workplaces and the
structural dynamics affecting their entry.
Lisa Pruitt received her degree from the University of London in
1997. Her areas of research include legal and policy implications
of income inequality along the rural-urban continuum and legal
aspects of declining mobility, with an emphasis on diminishing
access to higher education.
Michal Kurlaender received her degree in Education Policy from
Harvard University in 2005. Her work focuses on education policy
and evaluation, particularly, practices that address existing
racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality at various stages of
the educational attainment process.
Ross A. Thompson received his degree in Psychology from the
University of Michigan in 1981. His research focuses on the
applications of developmental research to public policy concerns,
including school readiness and its development, early childhood
investments, and early mental health.
Dina Okamoto received her degree in Sociology from the University
of Arizona in 2001. Her poverty related research focuses on
interviews and ethnographic studies of low-income immigrant
families and their adaptation to life in the U.S.
2264 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Doug Miller received his degree in Economics from Princeton
University in 2000. His research examines the impact of economic
forces, social policy, and the environment on health.
1151 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Ming-Cheng Lo received her degree in Sociology from the
University of Michigan in 1996. Her poverty related research
focuses on low-income immigrants’ healthcare experiences.
On-going projects include research on why different immigrant
groups develop varying coping strategies for inadequate care, how
healthcare challenges gender identities among immigrant women,
and whether children of low-income immigrants, as assimilated
adults, continue to struggle with issues of mistrust in
healthcare professionals.
2266 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Kimberlee Shauman received her degree in Sociology, Population
Demography and Ecology from the University of Michigan in 1997.
Her areas of expertise include social stratification, family and
kinship, demography, sociology of education, and quantitative
methodology.
2243 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Philip Martin received his degree from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 1975. His research focuses on: immigration,
farm labor, and economic development.
2101 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Paul Heckman received his degree in Curriculum and the Study of
Schooling from the University of California, Los Angeles in
1982. His research focuses on the educational ecology of
communities, school restructuring, and school culture, change and
cognition.
Paul Hastings received his degree from the University of Toronto.
His research focuses on the impact of stressors on child and
adolescent well-being, and the effects of poverty on
physiological reactivity, regulation and development of mental
and physical health problems.
Cassandra Hart earned her degree in Human Development and Social
Policy from Northwestern University in 2011. Her research focuses
on state and national education policies, and school-choice
policies and their effects on student outcomes.
Rand Conger received his degree in Sociology from the University
of Washington in 1976. His research focuses on social and
economic stress; life course development; family interaction
processes; and family research methods.
Scott Carrell received his degree in Economics from the
University of Florida in 2003. His research focuses on the effect
of school inputs, peer effects, and barriers to college.
1148 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Poverty is an exam room familiar. From Bellevue Hospital in New
York to the neighborhood health center in Boston where I used to
work, poverty has filtered through many of my interactions with
parents and their children.
WASHINGTON — Why are so many American families trapped in
poverty? Of all the explanations offered by Washington’s
politicians and economists, one seems particularly obvious in the
low-income neighborhoods near the Capitol: because there are so
many parents like Carl Harris and Charlene Hamilton.
For most of their daughters’ childhood, Mr. Harris didn’t come
close to making the minimum wage. His most lucrative job, as a
crack dealer, ended at the age of 24, when he left Washington to
serve two decades in prison, leaving his wife to raise their two
young girls while trying to hold their long-distance marriage
together.
In the News
Poverty as a Childhood Disease
By Perri Klass, M.D.
New York Times
May 13, 2013
Poverty is an exam room familiar. From Bellevue Hospital in New York to the neighborhood health center in Boston where I used to work, poverty has filtered through many of my interactions with parents and their children.
Long Prison Terms Eyed as Contributing to Poverty
John Tierney
NY Times
February 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — Why are so many American families trapped in poverty? Of all the explanations offered by Washington’s politicians and economists, one seems particularly obvious in the low-income neighborhoods near the Capitol: because there are so many parents like Carl Harris and Charlene Hamilton.
For most of their daughters’ childhood, Mr. Harris didn’t come close to making the minimum wage. His most lucrative job, as a crack dealer, ended at the age of 24, when he left Washington to serve two decades in prison, leaving his wife to raise their two young girls while trying to hold their long-distance marriage together.
Read more news