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202 Poverty Essay Topics & Examples

Poverty is one of the most pressing global issues affecting millions of individuals. We want to share some intriguing poverty essay topics and research questions for you to choose the titles of your paper correctly. With the help of this collection, you can explore the intricate dimensions of poverty, its causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Have a look at our poverty topics to get a deeper understanding of poverty and its implications.

💸 TOP 10 Poverty Essay Topics

🏆 best poverty essay examples, 👍 catchy poverty research topics, 🧐 thought-provoking poverty topics, 🎓 interesting poverty essay topics, ❓ research questions about poverty.

• Poverty: Causes and Solutions to Problem
• Poverty as a Social Problem
• Homelessness and Poverty in Developed and Developing Countries
• The Eliminating Poverty Strategies
• Poverty Effects on an Individual
• How Access to Clean Water Influences the Problem of Poverty
• Correlation Between Poverty and Juvenile Delinquency
• Urbanization and Poverty in “Slumdog Millionaire” Film Boyle’s movie, “Slumdog Millionaire,” is one of many successful attempts to depict the conditions in which people who are below the poverty level live.
• Poverty Effects on Mental Health This paper examines the link between poverty and mental health, the literature findings on the topic, and proposes a potential solution.
• Poverty and Theories of Its Causes Poverty in schools is a significant barrier to education that needs to be overcome to improve teaching and learning.
• Global Poverty and Nursing Intervention It is evident that poor health and poverty are closely linked. Community nurses who are conversant with the dynamics of the health of the poor can run successful health promotion initiatives.
• Relationship Between Poverty and Crime The paper makes the case and discusses inequality rather than poverty being the prime reason for people committing crimes.
• Degrading Consequences of Poverty in “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck Poverty is identity in John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, and the main character Kino, a poor fisherman, manifests a transformation in his identity,
• Vicious Circle of Poverty In this essay, the author describes the problem of poverty, its causes and ways of optimizing the economy and increasing production efficiency.
• Effects of Poverty on Education in the USA Colleges It is clear that poverty affects not only the living standards and lifestyle of people but also the college education in the United States of America.
• The Orthodox and Alternative Poverty Explanations Comparison Poverty has over the years become a worldwide subject of concern for economies. This essay will explore two theories- the orthodox and the alternative theories to poverty.
• How Does Poverty Affect Crime Rates? On the basis of this research question, the study could be organized and conducted to prove the following hypothesis – when poverty increases, crime rates increase as well.
• Poverty from Functionalist and Rational Choice Perspectives Poverty is a persistent social phenomenon, which can be examined from both the functionalist and rational choice perspectives.
• “What Is Poverty” by Dalrymple The purpose of this paper is to present Dalrymple point of view and analyze it by applying philosophical concepts.
• Poverty from Christian Perspective Christians perceive poverty differently than people without faith, noting the necessity for integrated support to help those in need.
• The Poverty as an Ethical Issue Looking at poverty as an ethical issue, we have to consider the fact that there are people who control resource distribution, which then leads to wealth or poverty in a community.
• Empowerment and Poverty Reduction The objective of this essay will be to highlight the health issues caused by poverty and the strategies needed to change the situation of poor people through empowerment.
• Poverty in “Serving in Florida” and “Dumpster Diving” “Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich describes the harsh reality of living in poverty while concentrating on the pragmatic dimension of the issue
• Bullying in Poverty and Child Development Context The aim of the present paper is to investigate how Bullying, as a factor associated with poverty, affects child development.
• Poverty and Homelessness in Jackson, Mississippi This paper will review the statistics and information about poverty and homelessness in Jackson, MS. The community of Black Americans is suffering from poverty and homelessness.
• Poverty in Young and Middle Adulthood According to functionalism, poverty is a dysfunctional aspect of interrelated components, which is the result of improper structuring.
• Poverty in “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner Essay “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner evokes compassion and prompts individuals to think about social problems existing nowadays.
• Effects of Divorce and Poverty in Families In the event of a divorce children are tremendously affected and in most cases attention is not given to them the way it should.
• Diana George’s Changing the Face of Poverty Book Diana George’s book, Changing the Face of Poverty, begins with a summary of several Thanksgiving commercials and catalogs.
• Poverty: Behavioral, Structural, Political Factors The research paper will primarily argue that poverty is a problem caused by a combination of behavioral, structural, and political systems.
• The Analysis of Henry George’s “Crime of Poverty” Reviewing Henry George’s Crime of Poverty, which was written in 1885, in its historical context can shed light on socio-political developments within the country.
• Poverty in the “LaLee’s Kin” Documentary In this paper, the author will analyse poverty as a social problem in the Mississippi Delta. The issue will be analysed from the perspective of the documentary “LaLee’s Kin”.
• Racial Discrimination and Poverty Racial discrimination and poverty have resulted in health disparities and low living standards among African Americans in the United States.
• Lessons Learned From the Poverty Simulation The main lesson learned from the poverty simulation is that poverty is far more serious than depicted in the media, which carelessly documents the numbers of poor people.
• The Problem of Poverty in Art of Different Periods Artists have always been at the forefront of addressing social issues, by depicting them in their works and attempting to draw the attention of the public to sensitive topics.
• Poverty in Ghana: Reasons and Solution Strategy The analysis provided in the paper revealed some internal and external factors that deter better economic and human development in Ghana.
• Love and Poverty in My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke The present paper includes a brief analysis of the poem ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ with a focus on imagery and figurative language.
• Child’s Development and Education: Negative Effects of Poverty Some adverse effects of poverty on a child’s development and education are poor performance academically, stagnant physical development, and behavioral issues.
• Poverty and Inequality: Income and Wealth Inequality The Stanford Center of Poverty and Inequality does an in-depth job of finding causes and capturing statistics on poverty and inequality.
• How Poverty Impacts on Life Chances, Experiences and Opportunities for Young People The paper specifically dwells on the social exclusion, class, and labeling theories to place youth poverty in its social context.
• Can Marriage End Poverty? Marriages to some degree alleviate poverty, but not all marriages can do so. Only marriages build on sound principles can achieve such a feat.
• Poverty and Its Negative Impact on Society Poverty affects many people globally, experiencing poor living conditions, limited access to education, unemployment, poor infrastructure, malnutrition, and child labor.
• The Concept of Poverty This work is aimed at identifying the key aspects associated with poverty and its impact on the lives of people in different contexts.
• The Ideal Society: Social Stratification and Poverty The paper argues social classes exist because of the variations in socioeconomic capacities in the world; however, an ideal society can eliminate them.
• Global Poverty and Education Economic theories like liberalization, deregulation, and privatization were developed to address global poverty.
• Global Issues of World Poverty: Reasons and Solutions The term ‘world poverty’ refers to poverty around the world and is not only limited to developing and under-developed nations.
• Poverty, Faith, and Justice: ”Liberating God of Life” by Elizabeth Johnson “Liberating God of Life Context: Wretched Poverty” by Johnson constructs that the main goal of human beings is to combat structural violence toward the poor.
• Poverty Relation With Immigrants Poverty-related immigration is usually caused by population pressures; as the natural land becomes less productive due to the increased technology and industrial production.
• Poverty and Homelessness in Canada Poverty and homelessness figure prominently in government policies and the aims of many social service organizations even in a country like Canada.
• Poverty: “$2.00 a Day” Book by Edin and Schaefer In their book “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” Edin and Schaefer investigate problems that people who live in poverty face every day.
• How Poverty Affects Early Education? A number of people live in poor conditions. According to the researchers of the Department of Education in the United States, poverty influences academic performance in an adverse way.
• The Issue of Poverty in Savannah, Georgia The paper addresses a serious issue that still affects Savannah, Georgia, and it is poverty. This problem influences both individuals and society.
• Human Trafficking and Poverty Issues in Modern Society The problem of human trafficking affects people all over the world, which defines the need for a comprehensive approach to this issue from the criminology perspective.
• Poverty: Resilience and Intersectionality Theories This paper assesses the impact of poverty on adult life, looking at risk and protective factors and the impact of power and oppression on the experience of poverty.
• Carl Hart’s Talk on Racism, Poverty, and Drugs In his TED Talk, Carl Hart, a professor of neuroscience at Columbia University who studies drug addiction, exposes a relationship between racism, poverty, and drugs.
• Global Poverty and Human Development Poverty rates across the globe continue to be a major issue that could impair the progress of humanity as a whole.
• Donald Trump’s Policies of Poverty and Human Rights One of the events related to an acute social issue of poverty in the United States involves the U.N. report on extreme U.S. poverty and human rights in the context of Donald Trump’s policies.
• Immigrant Children and Poverty Immigrant child poverty poses considerable social predicaments, because it is related to several long lasting school and development linked difficulties.
• Poverty in 1930s Europe and in the 21st Century US The true face of poverty may be found in rural portions of the United States’ South and Southwest regions, where living standards have plummeted, and industries have yet to begin.
• Rutger Bregman’s Statement of Poverty The paper states that Bregman’s approach to poverty and the proposal of guaranteed regular income is more suitable for developing countries.
• The Impact of Poverty on Children and Minority Groups The problem of poverty, not only among children but also among adults, has plagued this planet for a long time.
• Habitat for the Homeless: Poverty The paper states that Habitat for the Homeless comes to fulfill American values by ensuring that Americans can afford houses at a low price.
• Wealth, Poverty, and Systems of Economic Class By examining wealth, poverty, and economic classes from the perspective of social justice, the socioeconomic inequalities persistent in society will become clear.
• Poverty: Causes and Reduction Measures Poverty is a global disaster and that a large percentage of the population has insufficient income or material possessions to satisfy their basic needs.
• The U.S. Education: Effect of Poverty Poverty effects on education would stretch to other aspects of life and this justifies that, poverty in United States not only affects social lifestyles but also college education.
• Global Poverty, Inequality, and Mass Migration Such global issues as poverty and inequality and mass migration are significant today since many people are involved in them.
• Household Energy Use and Poverty In many developing countries, as well as among disadvantaged populations of the industrial states, the lack or absence of energy for household use is an everyday reality.
• Utilitarianism: Poverty Reduction Through Charity This paper shows that poverty levels can be reduced if wealthy individuals donate a part of their earnings, using the main principles of the utilitarian theory.
• School System: Poverty and Education This short assessment presents at least three examples of differences between the schools that lead to disadvantages in the education system and finally provides a suggestion to help bridge the gap.
• Human Trafficking and Poverty Discussion This paper synthesize information on human trafficking and poverty by providing an annotated bibliography of relevant sources.
• Evaluating the “Expertness” of the Southern Law Poverty Center The Southern Law Poverty Center has garnered controversy for its list of so-called “hate groups” and how it spends its half-billion-dollar budget.
• Chronic Poverty and Disability in the UK The country exhibits absolute poverty and many other social issues associated with under-developed states. The issue is resolvable through policy changes.
• Should People Be Ashamed of Poverty? People on welfare should not feel ashamed because the definition of poverty does not necessarily place them in the category of the poor.
• Wealth and Poverty Sources in America This paper explains the causes and consequences of poverty in the United States, programs and systems to combat it, and government benefits to support families in distress.
• Poverty and Mental Health Correlation The analysis of the articles provides a comprehensive understanding of the poverty and mental health correlation scale and its current state.
• Attitudes to Poverty: Singer’s Arguments Singer argues against the observation by the rich than helping one poor person can repeat over and over again until the rich eventually becomes poor.
• Poverty: The Negative Effects on Children Poor children often do not have access to quality healthcare, so they are sicker and more likely to miss school. Poor children are less likely to have weather-appropriate clothes.
• The Issue of the Poverty in the USA The most sustainable technique for poverty elimination in the United States is ensuring equitable resource distribution, education, and healthcare access.
• Poverty and How This Problem Can Be Solved Poverty is one of the global social problems of our time, existing even in the countries of the first world despite the generally high standard of living of people.
• Poverty: An Interplay of Social and Economic Psychology The paper demonstrates an interplay of social and economic psychology to scrutinize the poverty that has given rise to a paycheck-to-paycheck nation.
• Refugees: Poverty, Hunger, Climate Change, and Violence Individuals struggling with poverty, hunger, climate change, and gender-based violence and persecution may consider fleeing to the United States.
• The Extent of Poverty in the United States The paper states that the issue of poverty in the USA is induced by a butterfly effect, starting with widespread discrimination and lack of support.
• Poverty in Puerto Rico and Eradication Measures Studying Puerto Rican poverty as a social problem is essential because it helps identify the causes, effects, and eradication measures in Puerto Rico and other nations.
• The City of Atlanta, Georgia: Poverty and Homelessness This project goal is to address several issues in the community of the City of Atlanta. Georgia. The primary concern is the high rate of poverty and homelessness in the city.
• Poverty and Homelessness Among African Americans Even though the U.S. is wealthy and prosperous by global measures, poverty has persisted in the area, with Blacks accounting for a larger share.
• Economic Inequality and Its Relationship to Poverty This research paper will discuss the problem of economic inequality and show how this concept relates to poverty.
• Discussion of Poverty and Social Trends The advances and consequent demands on society grounded on social class and trends profoundly influence poverty levels.
• Life of Humanity: Inequality, Poverty, and Tolerance The paper concerns the times in which humanity, and especially the American people, live, not forgetting about inequality, poverty, and tolerance.
• Poverty, Its Social Context, and Solutions Understanding past and present poverty statistics is essential for developing effective policies to reduce the rate of poverty at the national level.
• Poverty in the US: “Down and Out in Paris and London” by Orwell The essay compares the era of George Orwell to the United States today based on the book “Down and Out in Paris and London” in terms of poverty.
• Is It Possible to Reduce Poverty in the United States? Reducing poverty in the United States is possible if such areas as education, employment, and health care are properly examined and improved for the public’s good.
• Poverty Among Seniors Age 65 and Above The social problem is the high poverty rate among older people aged 65 and above. Currently, there are millions of elderly who are living below the poverty line.
• Social Issue of Poverty in America The paper states that poverty is not an individual’s fault but rather a direct result of social, economic, and political circumstances.
• Poverty, Housing, and Community Benefits The community will benefit from affordable housing and business places, creating job opportunities for the residents and mentoring and apprenticeship.
• The Uniqueness of the Extent of the Poverty Rate in America The United States ranked near the top regarding poverty and inequality, and compared to other developed countries, income and wealth disparity in the United States is high.
• Globalization and Poverty: Trade Openness and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria Globalization can be defined as the process of interdependence on the global culture, economy, and population. It is brought about by cross-border trade.
• Inequality and Poverty in the United States One of the most common myths is that the United States (US) is a meritocracy, where anyone can succeed if they maintain industriousness.
• Poverty, Politics, and Profit as US Policy Issue Poverty remains one of the most intractable problems to deal with, both in the international community and in the United States.
• Christian Perspective on Poverty Several Christian interpretations have different ideas about poverty and wealth. This paper aims to discuss the Christian perspective on poverty.
• Poverty and Problematic Housing in California The question is what are the most vulnerable aspects of the administrative system that lead to an aggravation of the situation of homelessness.
• Race, Poverty, and Incarceration in the United States The American justice system, in its current form, promotes disproportionally high incarceration rates among blacks and, to a lesser degree, Latinos from poor urban neighborhoods.
• Global Poverty and Factors of Influence This paper introduces a complex perspective on the issue of global poverty, namely, incorporating economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors into the analysis.
• Poverty Causes and Solutions in Latin America This paper aims to understand the importance of the interference of Europe in Latin American affairs and its referring to the general principles of poverty.
• Christ’s Relationships with Wealth and Poverty This paper attempts to examine Christ’s relationships with wealth, money and poverty and provide an analysis of these relationships.
• Gary Haugen’s Speech on Violence and Poverty In his speech, Gary Haugen discusses the causes of poverty and concludes that violence is a hidden problem that should be addressed and eliminated.
• The Child Poverty Problem in Alabama Alabama has a very high rate of child poverty, where a quarter or 24% of all children can be categorized as poor.
• Poverty Among Blacks in America
• Hard Questions About Living in Poverty or Slavery
• Relationship Between Poverty and Health People in 2020
• Solving the Problem of Poverty in Mendocino County
• “Promises and Poverty”: Starbucks Conceals Poverty and Deterioration of the Environment
• Poverty and Social Causation Hypothesis
• Global Poverty and Economic Globalization Relations
• Poverty Prevalence and Causes in the United States
• Policy Development to Overcome Child Poverty in the U.S.
• Global Poverty: Tendencies, Causes and Impacts
• The Problem of Poverty Among Children
• Poverty and Poor Health: Access to Healthcare Services
• African American Families in Poverty
• Effects of Poverty on Health Care in the US and Afghanistan
• Poverty Among Children from Immigrant Workers
• “8 Million Have Slipped Into Poverty Since May as Federal Aid Has Dried Up” by Jason DeParle
• Teenage Pregnancy After Exposure to Poverty: Causation and Communication
• Poverty and Covid-19 in Developing Countries
• Poverty in America: Socio-Economic Inequality
• Poverty and Its Effects Upon Special Populations
• Global Poverty and Education Correlation
• American Dream and Poverty in the United States
• Changing the Face of Poverty
• The Link Between Poverty and Criminal Behavior
• The Cost of Saving: The Problem of Poverty
• Sociological Issues About Social Class and Poverty, Race and Ethnicity, Gender
• Speech on Mother Teresa: Poverty and Interiority in Mother Teresa
• Federal Poverty, Welfare, and Unemployment Policies
• Aid Agency Discussing Different Solutions to Poverty in Urban Areas
• Poverty Elimination in Perspective
• Marriage and Divorce: Poverty Among Divorced Women
• Is Debt Cancellation the Answer to World Poverty?
• Reduction of Poverty in the Rural Areas Through ICT

🌶️ Hot Poverty Ideas to Write about

• Trade Effect on Environmentalism and Poverty
• Gay and Poverty Marriage
• “Combating Poverty in Latin America” by Robyn Eversole
• Are MNCs Responsible for Poverty and Violence in Developing Nations?
• “Globalization, Poverty and Inequality” by Kaplinsky
• Poverty in America: Issue Analysis
• Economic Development in LDCs and Eradication Absolute Poverty
• Economic Development in LDCs and Sufficient Conditions to Eradicate Absolute Poverty
• Social Policy and Welfare – Poverty and Deprivation
• Poverty in New York City and Media Representation
• India’s Policies to Tackle Poverty and Inequality
• Poverty and Inequality Reducing Policies in China
• Poverty and Homelessness: Dimensions and Constructions
• Henry George’s “Progress and Poverty” Book
• World Poverty as a Global Social Problem
• Poverty from a Sociological Standpoint
• Poverty Among the USA Citizens and Reduction Efforts
• Standards of the Ethical Code: Children and Poverty
• Grameen Banking System Alleviating Poverty
• Brazil’ Poverty and Inequality
• Child Poverty Assessment in Canada
• National Conversation about Poverty
• Poverty and Welfare Policies in the United States
• Poverty in “The Bottom Billion” by Paul Collier
• Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Poverty
• Poverty and Violence During the Mexican Revolution
• Affordable Housing Programs in “Poverty in America”
• The Government of Bangladesh: Corruption and Poverty
• Poverty in “I Beat the Odds” by Oher and Yaegar
• Inequality in Australia: Poverty Rates and Globalism
• The Issue of World Poverty and Ways to Alleviate the Poverty in the World
• Problem of World Poverty
• Drug’s, Poverty’s and Beauty’s Effects on Health
• Can Authorization Reduce Poverty Among Undocumented Immigrants?
• Can Higher Employment Levels Bring Lower Poverty in the EU?
• Are Private Transfers Poverty and Inequality Reducing?
• Can Group-Based Credit Uphold Smallholder Farmers Productivity and Reduce Poverty in Africa?
• Can Anti-Poverty Programs Improve Family Functioning and Enhance Children’s Well-Being?
• Can Laziness Explain Poverty in America?
• Are Social Exclusion and Poverty Measures Interrelated?
• Can Increasing Smallholder Farm Size Broadly Reduce Rural Poverty in Zambia?
• Can Crop Purchase Programs Reduce Poverty and Improve Welfare in Rural Communities?
• Does Aid Availability Affect Effectiveness in Reducing Poverty?
• Can Employer Credit Checks Create Poverty Traps?
• Are the Poverty Effects of Trade Policies Invisible?
• Can Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty?
• Are Education Systems Modern as Well as Practical Enough to Eliminate Unemployment, and Thus Poverty?
• Can High-Inequality Developing Countries Escape Absolute Poverty?
• Are Inequality and Trade Liberalization Influences on Growth and Poverty?
• Can Globalisation Realistically Solve World Poverty?
• Are Urban Poverty and Undernutrition Growing?
• Can Big Push Interventions Take Small-Scale Farmers Out of Poverty?
• Can Civilian Disability Pensions Overcome the Poverty Issue?
• Are Poverty Rates Underestimated in China?
• Does Agriculture Help Poverty and Inequality Reduction?
• Can Agricultural Households Farm Their Way Out of Poverty?
• Are Income Poverty and Perceptions of Financial Difficulties Dynamically Interrelated?
• Are Bangladesh’s Recent Gains in Poverty Reduction Different From the Past?
• Can Cash Transfers Help Households Escape an Intergenerational Poverty Trap?
• Are Remittances Helping Lower Poverty and Inequality Levels in Latin America?
• Can Foreign Aid Reduce Income Inequality and Poverty?
• Can Child-Care Subsidies Reduce Poverty?
• Can Income Inequality Reduction Be Used as an Instrument for Poverty Reduction?

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These essay examples and topics on Poverty were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 8, 2024 .

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149 Poverty Essay Topics, Examples, & Title Ideas

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Poverty is a complex issue that have affected millions of people around the world for centuries. Scholars define poverty as the state of being unable to meet one’s basic needs for food, shelter, and other necessities. The issue can have far-reaching and devastating consequences for individuals, families, and whole communities.

This collection of poverty essay topics contains research questions, ideas, and titles on poverty in America, Africa, and the Philippines. They are suitable for an argumentative essay, research paper, or speech. You are welcome to use our wealth and poverty essay examples as prompts to make your own research on poverty.

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Role in Society The paper will outline the various things that Bill Gates has done in helping the unprivileged people, and in improving education in the United States.
• Single Mothers in Poverty Many of the single mothers, cannot secure lucrative jobs that would earn them enough income to meet their daily needs and the needs of their children.
• Bill Gates Life and Career Computer programming was a job that Bill Gates loved, and fortunately, his dream became true after occupying himself with computer programming at a tender age.
• The Relationship between Money and Happiness Various academic studies have shown that there is, indeed, a connection between the money you have and your level of happiness, but this connection is not very strong.
• Problem of Hunger in Modern World The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed discussion on hunger. The discussion will begin with an overview of the state of hunger in various parts of the world.
• Immigrants and Immigration Policies: Women and Migration International laws have a provision that mandates states to draft immigration policies. Immigration laws and policies of the US have failed to uphold the rights of immigrants.
• Child Labor, Its Causes, Effects, Counterpolicies The paper gives a broader view of the causes and effects of child labor, economic and socio-cultural perspectives, and efforts put to stop child labor.
• Medical Issues that Arise from Being Overworked The paper discusses overwork in context with middle and lower classes that are affected by the overworked and hectic schedule and medical issues they gain.
• Illegal Immigration Process Analysis Illegal immigration refers to migration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country.
• Poverty and Children in the United States Children are said to live in poverty when they are not able to have a minimum, decent standard of living that allows them to live a normal life in society.
• Poverty and Children in the United States Discussing the issue of the present day chronic cycle of poverty, it would be relevant to mention that children might be regarded as the most unprotected social group that suffers form the above mentioned problem.
• Extraction of Natural Resources and Production The research paper aims to investigate factors responsible for excessive exploitation of natural resources.
• Poverty in America Poverty denotes the state of affairs where there are no ways of managing to pay for crucial human requirements which include food, clean water, schooling, clothes, and shelter.
• Discrimination in the 21st Century for African Americans and Minorities USA as a country has made great steps in addressing the disparity and inequality among the various groups since the period of Civil Rights movements.
• Satire by Swift: A Modest Proposal The essay had painted a live picture of the tremendous poverty of Irish people in the early eighteenth century.
• Assessing and Recommending Quantitative Research Design The three different types of quantitative research designs have their own weaknesses and strengths, this makes the research designs to be applicable in different situations.
• Connection Between War and Poverty The paper will identify and discuss abuse, isolation, hostility and reliance has some of the causes of conflicts.
• Vicious Circle of Poverty in Brazil Brazil is faced with major environmental degradation issues such as deforestation, water pollution, and floods.
• Effects of the Global Recession on Tourism Tourism enables the country to earn foreign exchange. On the other hand, the social and economic benefits of tourism have greatly been destabilized by the recent global recession.
• Overrepresentation of Aboriginal People in Crime Why are the Aboriginal people suspected of so much crime given the basis of their history, describes the Bond theory relating it to the topic.
• Challenges That Multicultural Children Face in the US This essay will discuss the following points regarded as the challenges multicultural families face: alienation, poverty, unemployment, discrimination, desired policies.
• Politics of HIV/Aids and Social and Cultural Prejudice The paper looks at how the politics HIV/AIDS have operated as a conduit for social and cultural prejudice because the its prevalence has been associated with society culture.
• Socioeconomic Conditions Can Lead to Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Abuse of Children Wealth, access to education, parents' occupation, health, income, and housing are significant in avoiding child abuse. Discussion of the importance of socioeconomic conditions.
• How Food Insecurity Affects Children’s Education Food insecurity can also be harmful to academic performance. As a result, a poorly-educated individual has low income and continue suffering from world hunger.
• Diverty and the Limitations of Poverty in Victorian London
• Agricultural Water Management and Poverty in Ethiopia
• Poverty or Low Income as a Cause of Crime Debates about causes of crime have been raging on and they revolve around economic models of causation that deal with the utility of crime.
• Food Price Spikes: Price Insulation and Poverty
• Anti-Poverty Transfers and Spatial Prices in Tunisia
• Poverty and Juvenile Delinquency This paper will set out to analyze the relationship between poverty and juvenile delinquency in order to explain the strong correlation between the two.
• Food Poverty and Livelihoods Issues in Rural Nigeria
• Food Poverty and Its Causes in Pakistan
• Crime and Poverty: Causes of Crime, Effects of Crime, and Solutions This study explains what crime and poverty are, the causes of crime using the structural-functionalist theory, the effects of crime and the measures to be taken to avert this problem.
• Ethnic Stereotypes and Preferences on Poverty Assistance
• European Union Poverty Poor Rate
• Healthcare and Poverty at the Global Level Poor people often do not have access to proper treatment. This issue is becoming global and needs to be addressed not only at the national but also at the international level.
• Drugs and Their Impact on Poverty
• Food Prices and Poverty Reduction in the Long Run
• Poverty and Poor Health Relations The researches that will be examined in this paper suggest that a link between the prevalence of infections, noncommunicable, and mental health diseases exists.
• Connection Between Human Trafficking and Poverty
• Generating Disaggregated Poverty Maps
• Living Conditions and Behavioral & Mental Patterns The central paper’s theory states that a person’s life circumstances directly influence his behavior patterns.
• Feminist Explanations for the Feminization of Poverty
• Evaluation of Different Sociological Measures of Poverty
• Examination of Major Effects of Poverty on Children’s Education Quality education is a necessary part of a growing individual’s life, allowing them to obtain access to unique possibilities and secure a successful path.
• Food Poverty Profile and Decomposition Applied to Ghana
• Christian Beliefs Concerning World Poverty
• Economic Growth and Child Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh and China
• Different Ways People Look at Poverty
• Ethnic Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia Since 1969
• General Public Poverty Aid for Individuals
• Global Biofuel Production and Poverty in China
• Distribution-Sensitive Multidimensional Poverty Measures
• Classification Trees for Poverty Mapping
• Market-Based Solutions for Global Poverty
• Food Poverty Index for Venezuelan Households
• Child Poverty and Child Well-Being in Italy
• Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty
• Gender, Time Use, and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Gender-Sensitive Poverty Mapping for the US
• Food Poverty and Solidarity Networks in Italy
• Fertility, Household Size, and Poverty in Nepal
• Agricultural Policies for Poverty Reduction
• Financial Deepening and Poverty Reduction in Zambia
• Effects of Poverty on Mental Health People who live in economically disadvantaged communities face several challenges pertaining to their mental health.
• Economic Growth and Development as a Tool for Poverty Overcoming
• Choosing Rural Road Investments to Help Reduce Poverty
• Minimum Wage and the Poverty Gap This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of an increase in the minimum wage policy and does an increase in minimum wage decrease the poverty gap.
• Combating Poverty Through Self Reliance
• The Connection Between Child Poverty and Economic Growth
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The Social Consequences of Poverty: An Empirical Test on Longitudinal Data

Carina mood.

Institute for Futures Studies, Box 591, 101 31 Stockholm, Sweden

Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Jan O. Jonsson

Nuffield College, OX1 1NF Oxford, England, UK

Poverty is commonly defined as a lack of economic resources that has negative social consequences, but surprisingly little is known about the importance of economic hardship for social outcomes. This article offers an empirical investigation into this issue. We apply panel data methods on longitudinal data from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey 2000 and 2010 (n = 3089) to study whether poverty affects four social outcomes—close social relations (social support), other social relations (friends and relatives), political participation, and activity in organizations. We also compare these effects across five different poverty indicators. Our main conclusion is that poverty in general has negative effects on social life. It has more harmful effects for relations with friends and relatives than for social support; and more for political participation than organizational activity. The poverty indicator that shows the greatest impact is material deprivation (lack of cash margin), while the most prevalent poverty indicators—absolute income poverty, and especially relative income poverty—appear to have the least effect on social outcomes.

Introduction

According to the most influential definitions, poverty is seen as a lack of economic resources that have negative social consequences—this is in fact a view that dominates current theories of poverty (Townsend 1979 ; Sen 1983 ; UN 1995 ), and also has a long heritage (Smith 1776 /1976). The idea is that even when people have food, clothes, and shelter, economic problems lead to a deterioration of social relations and participation. Being poor is about not being able to partake in society on equal terms with others, and therefore in the long run being excluded by fellow citizens or withdrawing from social and civic life because of a lack of economic resources, typically in combination with the concomitant shame of not being able to live a life like them (e.g., Sen 1983 ). Economic hardship affects the standard of life, consumption patterns, and leisure time activities, and this is directly or indirectly related to the possibility of making or maintaining friends or acquaintances: poverty is revealed by not having appropriate clothes, or a car; by not being able to afford vacation trips, visits to the restaurant, or hosting dinner parties (e.g., Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Callan et al. 1993 )—in short, low incomes prevent the poor from living a life in “decency” (Galbraith 1958 ).

The relational nature of poverty is also central to the social exclusion literature, which puts poverty in a larger perspective of multiple disadvantages and their interrelationships (Hills et al. 2002 , Rodgers et al. 1995 ; Room 1995 ). While there are different definitions of the social exclusion concept, the literature is characterized by a move from distributional to relational concerns (Gore 1995 ) and by an emphasis on the importance of social integration and active participation in public life. The inability of living a decent or “ordinary” social life may in this perspective erode social networks, social relations, and social participation, potentially setting off a downward spiral of misfortune (Paugam 1995 ) reinforcing disadvantages in several domains of life. This perspective on poverty and social exclusion is essentially sociological: the playing field of the private economy is social. It is ultimately about individuals’ relations with other people—not only primary social relations, with kin and friends, but extending to secondary relations reflected by participation in the wider community, such as in organizations and in political life (UN 1995 ).

Despite the fact that the social consequences of limited economic resources are central to modern perspectives on poverty and marginalization, this relation is surprisingly seldom studied empirically. Qualitative research on the poor give interesting examples on how the negative effects of poverty works, and portray the way that economic problems are transformed into social ones (Ridge and Millar 2011 ; Attree 2006 ). Such studies, however, have too small sample sizes to generalize to the population, and they cannot tell us much about the range of the problem. The (relatively few) studies that have addressed the association between poverty and social outcomes on larger scale tend to verify that the poor have worse social relations (Böhnke 2008 ; Jonsson and Östberg 2004 ; Levitas 2006 ), but Barnes et al. ( 2002 ) did not find any noteworthy association between poverty (measured as relative income poverty, using the 60 %-limit) and social relations or social isolation. Dahl et al. ( 2008 ) found no relation between poverty and friendships, but report less participation in civic organizations among the poor. All these studies have however been limited to cross-sectional data or hampered by methodological shortcomings, and therefore have not been able to address the separation of selection effects from potentially causal ones.

Our aim in this study is to make good these omissions. We use longitudinal data from the Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU) 2000 and 2010 to study how falling into poverty, or rising from it, is associated with outcomes in terms of primary and secondary social relations, including participation in civil society. These panel data make it possible to generalize the results to the Swedish adult population (19–65 in 2000; 29–75 in 2010), to address the issue of causality, and to estimate how strong the relation between economic vulnerability and social outcomes is. Because the data provide us with the possibility of measuring poverty in several ways, we are also able to address the question using different—alternative or complementary—indicators. Poverty is measured as economic deprivation (lack of cash margin, self-reported economic problems), income poverty (absolute and relative), and long-term poverty, respectively. The primary, or core, social outcomes are indicated by having social support if needed, and by social relations with friends and relatives. We expand our analysis to secondary, or fringe, social outcomes in terms of participation in social life at large, such as in civil society: our indicators here include the participation in organizations and in political life.

Different Dimensions/Definitions of Poverty

In modern welfare states, the normal take on the issue of poverty is to regard it as the relative lack of economic resources, that is, to define the poor in relation to their fellow citizens in the same country at the same time. Three approaches dominate the scholarly literature today. The first takes as a point of departure the income deemed necessary for living a life on par with others, or that makes possible an “acceptable” living standard—defined as the goods and services judged necessary, often on the basis of consumer or household budget studies. This usage of a poverty threshold is often (somewhat confusingly) called absolute income poverty , and is most common in North America (cf. Corak 2006 for a review), although most countries have poverty lines defined for different kinds of social benefits. In Europe and in the OECD, the convention is instead to use versions of relative income poverty , defining as poor those whose incomes fall well behind the median income in the country in question (European Union using 60 % and OECD 50 % of the median as the threshold). As an alternative to using purchasing power (as in the “absolute” measure), this relative measure defines poverty by income inequality in the bottom half of the income distribution (Atkinson et al. 2002 ; OECD 2008 ).

The third approach argues that income measures are too indirect; poverty should instead be indicated directly by the lack of consumer products and services that are necessary for an acceptable living standard (Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Ringen 1988 ; Townsend 1979 ). This approach often involves listing a number of possessions and conditions, such as having a car, washing machine, modern kitchen; and being able to dine out sometimes, to have the home adequately heated and mended, to have sufficient insurances, and so on. An elaborate version includes information on what people in general see as necessities, what is often termed “consensual” poverty (e.g., Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Gordon et al. 2000 ; Halleröd 1995 ; van den Bosch 2001 ). Other direct indicators include the ability to cover unforeseen costs (cash margin) and subjective definitions of poverty (e.g., van den Bosch 2001 ). The direct approach to poverty has gained in popularity and measures of economic/material deprivation and consensual poverty are used in several recent and contemporary comparative surveys such as ECHP (Whelan et al. 2003 ) and EU-SILC (e.g., UNICEF 2012 ; Nolan and Whelan 2011 ).

It is often pointed out that, due to the often quite volatile income careers of households, the majority of poverty episodes are short term and the group that is identified as poor in the cross-section therefore tends to be rather diluted (Bane and Ellwood 1986 ; Duncan et al. 1993 ). Those who suffer most from the downsides of poverty are, it could be argued, instead the long-term, persistent, or chronically poor, and there is empirical evidence that those who experience more years in poverty also are more deprived of a “common lifestyle” (Whelan et al. 2003 ). Poverty persistence has been defined in several ways, such as having spent a given number of years below a poverty threshold, or having an average income over a number of years that falls under the poverty line (e.g., Duncan and Rodgers 1991 ; Rodgers and Rodgers 1993 ). The persistently poor can only be detected with any precision in longitudinal studies, and typically on the basis of low incomes, as data covering repeated measures of material deprivation are uncommon.

For the purposes of this study, it is not essential to nominate the best or most appropriate poverty measure. The measures outlined above, while each having some disadvantage, all provide plausible theoretical grounds for predicting negative social outcomes. Low incomes, either in “absolute” or relative terms, may inhibit social activities and participation because these are costly (e.g., having decent housing, needing a car, paying membership fees, entrance tickets, or new clothes). Economic deprivation, often indicated by items or habits that are directly relevant to social life, is also a valid representation of a lack of resources. Lastly, to be in long-term poverty is no doubt a worse condition than being in shorter-term poverty.

It is worth underlining that we see different measures of poverty as relevant indicators despite the fact that the overlap between them often is surprisingly small (Bradshaw and Finch 2003 ). The lack of overlap is not necessarily a problem, as different people may have different configurations of economic problems but share in common many of the experiences of poverty—experiences, we argue, that are (in theory at least) all likely to lead to adverse social outcomes. Whether this is the case or not is one of the questions that we address, but if previous studies on child poverty are of any guidance, different definitions of poverty may show surprisingly similar associations with a number of outcomes (Jonsson and Östberg 2004 ).

What are the Likely Social Consequences of Poverty?

We have concluded that poverty is, according to most influential poverty definitions, manifested in the social sphere. This connects with the idea of Veblen ( 1899 ) of the relation between consumption and social status. What you buy and consume—clothes, furniture, vacation trips—in part define who you are, which group you aspire to belong to, and what view others will have of you. Inclusion into and exclusion from status groups and social circles are, in this view, dependent on economic resources as reflected in consumption patterns. While Veblen was mostly concerned about the rich and their conspicuous consumption, it is not difficult to transfer these ideas to the less fortunate: the poor are under risk of exclusion, of losing their social status and identity, and perhaps also, therefore, their friends. It is however likely that this is a process that differs according to outcome, with an unknown time-lag.

If, as outlined above, we can speak of primary and secondary social consequences, the former should include socializing with friends, but also more intimate relations. Our conjecture is that the closer the relation, the less affected is it by poverty, simply because intimate social bonds are characterized by more unconditional personal relations, typically not requiring costs to uphold.

When it comes to the secondary social consequences, we move outside the realm of closer interpersonal relations to acquaintances and the wider social network, and to the (sometimes relatively anonymous) participation in civil or political life. This dimension of poverty lies at the heart of the social exclusion perspective, which strongly emphasizes the broader issues of societal participation and civic engagement, vital to democratic societies. It is also reflected in the United Nation’s definition, following the Copenhagen summit in 1995, where “overall poverty” in addition to lack of economic resources is said to be “…characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social, and cultural life” (UN 1995 , p. 57). Poverty may bring about secondary social consequences because such participation is costly—as in the examples of travel, need for special equipment, or membership fees—but also because of psychological mechanisms, such as lowered self-esteem triggering disbelief in civic and political activities, and a general passivity leading to decreased organizational and social activities overall. If processes like these exist there is a risk of a “downward spiral of social exclusion” where unemployment leads to poverty and social isolation, which in turn reduce the chances of re-gaining a footing in the labour market (Paugam 1995 ).

What theories of poverty and social exclusion postulate is, in conclusion, that both what we have called primary and secondary social relations will be negatively affected by economic hardship—the latter supposedly more than the former. Our strategy in the following is to test this basic hypothesis by applying multivariate panel-data analyses on longitudinal data. In this way, we believe that we can come further than previous studies towards estimating causal effects, although, as is the case in social sciences, the causal relation must remain preliminary due to the nature of observational data.

Data and Definitions

We use the two most recent waves of the Swedish Level-of-living Survey, conducted in 2000 and 2010 on random (1/1000) samples of adult Swedes, aged 18–75. 1 The attrition rate is low, with 84 % of panel respondents remaining from 2000 to 2010. This is one of the few data sets from which we can get over-time measures of both poverty and social outcomes for a panel that is representative of the adult population (at the first time point, t 0 )—in addition, there is annual income information from register data between the waves. The panel feature obviously restricts the age-groups slightly (ages 19–65 in 2000; 29–75 in 2010), the final number of analyzed cases being between 2995 and 3144, depending on the number of missing cases on the respective poverty measure and social outcome variable. For ease of interpretation and comparison of effect sizes, we have constructed all social outcome variables and poverty variables to be dichotomous (0/1). 2

In constructing poverty variables, we must balance theoretical validity with the need to have group sizes large enough for statistical analysis. For example, we expand the absolute poverty measure to include those who received social assistance any time during the year. As social assistance recipients receive this benefit based on having an income below a poverty line that is similar to the one we use, this seems justifiable. In other cases, however, group sizes are small but we find no theoretically reasonable way of making the variables more inclusive, meaning that some analyses cannot be carried out in full detail.

Our income poverty measures are based on register data and are thus free from recall error or misreporting, but—as the proponents of deprivation measures point out—income poverty measures are indirect measures of hardship. The deprivation measure is more direct, but self-reporting always carries a risk of subjectivity in the assessment. To the extent that changes in one’s judgment of the economic situation depend on changes in non-economic factors that are also related to social relations, the deprivation measure will give upwardly biased estimates. 3 As there is no general agreement about whether income or deprivation definitions are superior, our use of several definitions is a strength because the results will give an overall picture that is not sensitive to potential limitations in any one measure. In addition, we are able to see whether results vary systematically across commonly used definitions.

Poverty Measures

• Cash margin whether the respondent can raise a given sum of money in a week, if necessary (in 2000, the sum was 12,000 SEK; in 2010, 14,000 SEK, the latter sum corresponding to approximately 1600 Euro, 2200 USD, or 1400 GBP in 2013 currency rates). For those who answer in the affirmative, there is a follow-up question of how this can be done: by (a) own/household resources, (b) borrowing.
• Economic crisis Those who claim that they have had problems meeting costs for rent, food, bills, etc. during the last 12 months (responded “yes” to a yes/no alternative).
• Absolute poverty is defined as either (a) having a disposable family income below a poverty threshold or (b) receiving social assistance, both assessed in 1999 (for the survey 2000) or 2009 (for the survey 2010). The poverty line varies by family type/composition according to a commonly used calculation of household necessities (Jansson 2000 ). This “basket” of goods and services is intended to define an acceptable living standard, and was originally constructed for calculating an income threshold for social assistance, with addition of estimated costs for housing and transport. The threshold is adjusted for changes in the Consumer Price Index, using 2010 as the base year. In order to get analyzable group sizes, we classify anyone with an income below 1.25 times this threshold as poor. Self-employed are excluded because their nominal incomes are often a poor indicator of their economic standard.
• Deprived and income poor A combination of the indicator of economic deprivation and the indicator of absolute poverty. The poor are defined as those who are economically deprived and in addition are either absolute income-poor or have had social assistance some time during the last calendar year.
• Long - term poor are defined as those interviewed in 2010 (2000) who had an equivalized disposable income that fell below the 1.25 absolute poverty threshold (excluding self-employed) or who received social assistance in 2009 (1999), and who were in this situation for at least two of the years 2000–2008 (1990–1998). The long-term poor (coded 1) are contrasted to the non-poor (coded 0), excluding the short-term poor (coded missing) in order to distinguish whether long-term poverty is particularly detrimental (as compared to absolute poverty in general).
• Relative poverty is defined, according to the EU standard, as having a disposable equivalized income that is lower than 60 % of the median income in Sweden the year in question (EU 2005). 4 As for absolute poverty, this variable is based on incomes the year prior to the survey year. Self-employed are excluded.

Social and Participation Outcomes

Primary (core) social relations.

• Social support The value 1 (has support) is given to those who have answered in the positive to three questions about whether one has a close friend who can help if one (a) gets sick, (b) needs someone to talk to about troubles, or (c) needs company. Those who lack support in at least one of these respects are coded 0 (lack of support).
• Frequent social relations This variable is based on four questions about how often one meets (a) relatives and (b) friends, either (i) at ones’ home or (ii) at the home of those one meets, with the response set being “yes, often”, “sometimes”, and “no, never”. Respondents are defined as having frequent relations (1) if they have at least one “often” of the four possible and no “never”, 5 and 0 otherwise.

Secondary (fringe) Social Relations/Participation

• Political participation : Coded 1 (yes) if one during the last 12 months actively participated (held an elected position or was at a meeting) in a trade union or a political party, and 0 (no) otherwise. 6
• Organizational activity : Coded 1 (yes) if one is a member of an organization and actively participate in its activities at least once in a year, and 0 (no) otherwise.

Control Variables

• Age (in years)
• Educational qualifications in 2010 (five levels according to a standard schema used by Statistics Sweden (1985), entered as dummy variables)
• Civil status distinguishes between single and cohabiting/married persons, and is used as a time-varying covariate (TVC) where we register any changes from couple to single and vice versa.
• Immigrant origin is coded 1 if both parents were born in any country outside Sweden, 0 otherwise.
• Labour market status is also used as a TVC, with four values indicating labour market participation (yes/no) in 2000 and 2010, respectively.
• Global self - rated health in 2000, with three response alternatives: Good, bad, or in between. 7

Table  1 shows descriptive statistics for the 2 years we study, 2000 and 2010 (percentages in the upper panel; averages, standard deviations, max and min values in the lower panel). Recall that the sample is longitudinal with the same respondents appearing in both years. This means, naturally, that the sample ages 10 years between the waves, the upper age limit being pushed up from 65 to 75. Both the change over years and the ageing of the sample have repercussions for their conditions: somewhat more have poor health, for example, fewer lack social support but more lack frequent social relations, and more are single in 2010 (where widows are a growing category). The group has however improved their economic conditions, with a sizeable reduction in poverty rates. Most of the changes are in fact period effects, and it is particularly obvious for the change in poverty—in 2000 people still suffered from the deep recession in Sweden that begun in 1991 and started to turn in 1996/97 (Jonsson et al. 2010 ), while the most recent international recession (starting in 2008/09) did not affect Sweden that much.

Table 1

Descriptive statistics of dependent and independent variables in the LNU panel

N for variables used as change variables pertains to non-missing observations in both 2000 and 2010

The overall decrease in poverty masks changes that our respondents experienced between 2000 and 2010: Table  2 reveals these for the measure of economic deprivation, showing the outflow (row) percentages and the total percentages (and the number of respondents in parentheses). It is evident that there was quite a lot of mobility out of poverty between the years (61 % left), but also a very strong relative risk of being found in poverty in 2010 among those who were poor in 2000 (39 vs. 5 % of those who were non-poor in 2000). Of all our respondents, the most common situation was to be non-poor both years (81 %), while few were poor on both occasions (6 %). Table  2 also demonstrates some small cell numbers: 13.3 % of the panel (9.4 % + 3.9 %), or a good 400 cases, changed poverty status, and these cases are crucial for identifying our models. As in many panel studies based on survey data, this will inevitably lead to some problems with large standard errors and difficulties in arriving at statistically significant and precise estimates; but to preview the findings, our results are surprisingly consistent all the same.

Table 2

Mobility in poverty (measured as economic deprivation) in Sweden between 2000 and 2010

Outflow percentage (row %), total percentage, and number of cases (in parentheses). LNU panel 2000–2010

We begin with showing descriptive results of how poverty is associated with our outcome variables, using the economic deprivation measure of poverty. 8 Figure  1 confirms that those who are poor have worse social relationships and participate less in political life and in organizations. Poverty is thus connected with both primary and secondary social relations.

The relation between poverty (measured as economic deprivation) and social relations/participation in Sweden, LNU 2010. N = 5271

The descriptive picture in Fig.  1 does not tell us anything about the causal nature of the relation between poverty and social outcomes, only that such a relation exists, and that it is in the predicted direction: poor people have weaker social relations, less support, and lower levels of political and civic participation. Our task now is to apply more stringent statistical models to test whether the relation we have uncovered is likely to be of a causal nature. This means that we must try to rid the association of both the risk for reverse causality—that, for example, a weaker social network leads to poverty—and the risk that there is a common underlying cause of both poverty and social outcomes, such as poor health or singlehood.

The Change Model

First, as we have panel data, we can study the difference in change across two time-points T (called t 0 and t 1 , respectively) in an outcome variable (e.g., social relations), between groups (i.e. those who changed poverty status versus those who did not). The respondents are assigned to either of these groups on the grounds of entering or leaving poverty; in the first case, one group is non-poor at t 0 but experiences poverty at t 1 , and the change in this group is compared to the group consisting of those who are non-poor both at t 0 and t 1 . The question in focus then is: Do social relations in the group entering poverty worsen in relation to the corresponding change in social relations in the group who remains non-poor? Because we have symmetric hypotheses of the effect of poverty on social outcomes—assuming leaving poverty has positive consequences similar to the negative consequences of entering poverty—we also study whether those who exit poverty improve their social outcomes as compared to those remaining poor. We ask, that is, not only what damage falling into poverty might have for social outcomes, but also what “social gains” could be expected for someone who climbs out of poverty.

Thus, in our analyses we use two different “change groups”, poverty leavers and poverty entrants , and two “comparison groups”, constantly poor and never poor , respectively. 9 The setup comparing the change in social outcomes for those who change poverty status and those who do not is analogous to a so-called difference-in-difference design, but as the allocation of respondents to comparison groups and change groups in our data cannot be assumed to be random (as with control groups and treatment groups in experimental designs), we take further measures to approach causal interpretations.

Accounting for the Starting Value of the Dependent Variable

An important indication of the non-randomness of the allocation to the change and comparison groups is that their average values of the social outcomes (i.e. the dependent variable) at t 0 differ systematically: Those who become poor between 2000 and 2010 have on average worse social outcomes already in 2000 than those who stay out of poverty. Similarly, those who stay in poverty both years have on average worse social outcomes than those who have exited poverty in 2010. In order to further reduce the impact of unobserved variables, we therefore make all comparisons of changes in social outcomes between t 0 and t 1 for fixed t 0 values of both social outcome and poverty status.

As we use dichotomous outcome variables, we get eight combinations of poverty and outcome states (2 × 2 × 2 = 8), and four direct strategic comparisons:

• Poverty leavers versus constantly poor, positive social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who exit poverty have a higher chance of maintaining the positive social outcome than those who stay in poverty
• Poverty leavers versus constantly poor, negative social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who exit poverty have a higher chance of improvement in the social outcome than those who stay in poverty
• Poverty entrants versus never poor, positive social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who enter poverty have a higher risk of deterioration in the social outcome than those who stay out of poverty, and
• Poverty entrants versus never poor, negative social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who enter poverty have a lower chance of improvement in the social outcome.

Thus, we hold the initial social situation and poverty status fixed, letting only the poverty in 2010 vary. 10 The analytical strategy is set out in Table  3 , showing estimates of the probability to have frequent social relations in 2010, for poverty defined (as in Table  2 and Fig.  1 above) as economic deprivation.

Table 3

Per cent with frequent social relations in “comparison” and “change” groups in 2000 and 2010, according to initial value on social relations in 2000 and poverty (measured as economic deprivation) in 2000 and 2010

LNU panel 2000–2010. N = 3083

The figures in Table  3 should be read like this: 0.59 in the upper left cell means that among those who were poor neither in 2000 nor in 2010 (“never poor”, or 0–0), and who had non-frequent social relations to begin with, 59 % had frequent social relations in 2010. Among those never poor who instead started out with more frequent social relations, 90 per cent had frequent social relations in 2010. This difference (59 vs. 90) tells us either that the initial conditions were important (weak social relations can be inherently difficult to improve) or that there is heterogeneity within the group of never poor people, such as some having (to us perhaps unobserved) characteristics that support relation building while others have not.

Because our strategy is to condition on the initial situation in order to minimize the impact of initial conditions and unobserved heterogeneity, we focus on the comparisons across columns. If we follow each column downwards, that is, for a given initial social outcome (weak or not weak social relations, respectively) it is apparent that the outcome is worse for the “poverty entrants” in comparison with the “never poor” (upper three lines). Comparing the change group [those who became poor (0–1)] with the comparison group [never poor (0–0)] for those who started out with weak social relations (left column), the estimated probability of frequent social relations in 2010 is 7 % points lower for those who became poor. Among those who started out with frequent relations, those who became poor have a 17 % points lower probability of frequent relations in 2010 than those who stayed out of poverty.

If we move down Table  3 , to the three bottom lines, the change and comparison groups are now different. The comparison group is the “constantly poor” (1–1), and the change group are “poverty leavers” (1–0). Again following the columns downwards, we can see that the change group improved their social relations in comparison with the constantly poor; and this is true whether they started out with weak social relations or not. In fact, the chance of improvement for those who started off with non-frequent social relations is the most noteworthy, being 33 % units higher for those who escaped poverty than for those who did not. In sum, Table  3 suggests that becoming poor appears to be bad for social relations whereas escaping poverty is beneficial.

Expanding the Model

The model exemplified in Table  3 is a panel model that studies change across time within the same individuals, conditioning on their initial state. It does away with time-constant effects of observed and unobserved respondent characteristics, and although this is far superior to a cross-sectional model (such as the one underlying Fig.  1 ) there are still threats to causal interpretations. It is possible (if probably unusual) that permanent characteristics may trigger a change over time in both the dependent and independent variables; or, put in another way, whether a person stays in or exits poverty may be partly caused by a variable that also predicts change in the outcome (what is sometimes referred to as a violation of the “common trend assumption”). In our case, we can for example imagine that health problems in 2000 can affect who becomes poor in 2010, at t 1 , and that the same health problems can lead to a deterioration of social relations between 2000 and 2010, so even conditioning on the social relations at t 0 will not be enough. This we handle by adding control variables, attempting to condition the comparison of poor and non-poor also on sex, age, highest level of education (in 2010), immigrant status, and health (in 2000). 11

Given the set-up of our data—with 10 years between the two data-points and with no information on the precise time ordering of poverty and social outcomes at t 1 , the model can be further improved by including change in some of the control variables. It is possible, for example, that a non-poor and married respondent in 2000 divorced before 2010, triggering both poverty and reduced social relations at the time of the interview in 2010. 12 There are two major events that in this way may bias our results, divorce/separation and unemployment (because each can lead to poverty, and possibly also affect social outcomes). We handle this by controlling for variables combining civil status and unemployment in 2000 as well as in 2010. To the extent that these factors are a consequence of becoming poor, there is a risk of biasing our estimates downwards (e.g., if becoming poor increases the risk of divorce). However, as there is no way to distinguish empirically whether control variables (divorce, unemployment) or poverty changed first we prefer to report conservative estimates. 13

Throughout, we use logistic regression to estimate our models (one model for each social outcome and poverty definition). We create a dummy variable for each of the combinations of poverty in 2000, poverty in 2010 and the social outcome in 2000, and alternate the reference category in order to get the four strategic comparisons described above. Coefficients do thus express the distance between the relevant change and comparison groups. The coefficients reported are average marginal effects (AME) for a one-unit change in the respective poverty variable (i.e. going from non-poor to poor and vice versa), which are straightforwardly interpretable as percentage unit differences and (unlike odds ratios or log odds ratios) comparable across models and outcomes (Mood 2010 ).

Regression Results

As detailed above, we use changes over time in poverty and social outcomes to estimate the effects of interest. The effect of poverty is allowed to be heterogeneous, and is assessed through four comparisons of the social outcome in 2010 (Y 1 ):

• Those entering poverty relative to those in constant non-poverty (P 01  = 0,1 vs. P 01  = 0,0) when both have favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 1)
• Those exiting poverty relative to those in constant poverty (P 01  = 1,0 vs. P 01  = 1,1) when both have favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 1)
• Those entering poverty relative to those in constant non-poverty (P 01  = 0,1 vs. P 01  = 0,0) when both have non-favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 0)
• Those exiting poverty relative to those in constant poverty (P 01  = 1,0 vs. P 01  = 1,1) when both have non-favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 0)

Poverty is a rare outcome, and as noted above it is particularly uncommon to enter poverty between 2000 and 2010 because of the improving macro-economic situation. Some of the social outcomes were also rare in 2000. This unfortunately means that in some comparisons we have cell frequencies that are prohibitively small, and we have chosen to exclude all comparisons involving cells where N < 20.

The regression results are displayed in Table  4 . To understand how the estimates come to be, consider the four in the upper left part of the Table (0.330, 0.138, −0.175 and −0.065), reflecting the effect of poverty, measured as economic deprivation, on the probability of having frequent social relations. Because these estimates are all derived from a regression without any controls, they are identical (apart from using three decimal places) to the percentage comparisons in Table  3 (0.33, 0.14, −0.17, −0.07), and can be straightforwardly interpreted as average differences in the probability of the outcome in question. From Table  4 it is clear that the three first differences are all statistically significant, whereas the estimate −0.07 is not (primarily because those who entered poverty in 2010 and had infrequent social relations in 2000 is a small group, N = 25).

Table 4

Average marginal effects (from logistic regression) of five types of poverty (1–5) on four social outcomes (A-D) comparing those with different poverty statuses in 2000 and 2010 and conditioning on the starting value of the social outcome (in 2000)

Right columns control for sex, education, age, immigrant status, health in 2000, civil status change between 2000 and 2010, and unemployment change between 2000 and 2010. P values in parentheses. Excluded estimates involve variable categories with N < 20. Shaded cells are in hypothesized direction, bold estimates are statistically significant ( P  < 0.05). N in regressions: 1A: 3075; 1B: 3073; 1C: 3075; 1D: 3069; 2A: 3144; 2B: 3137; 2C: 3144; 2D: 3130; 3A: 3074, 3B: 3072; 3C: 3074; 3D: 3068; 4A: 2995; 4B: 2988; 4C: 2995; 4D: 2981; 5A: 3128; 5B: 3121; 5C: 3128; 5D: 3114

In the column to the right, we can see what difference the controls make: the estimates are reduced, but not substantially so, and the three first differences are still statistically significant.

The estimates for each social outcome, reflecting the four comparisons described above, support the hypothesis of poverty affecting social relations negatively (note that the signs of the estimates should differ in order to do so, the upper two being positive as they reflect an effect of the exit from poverty, and the lower two being negative as they reflect an effect of entering poverty). We have indicated support for the hypothesis in Table  4 by shading the estimates and standard errors for estimates that go in the predicted direction.

Following the first two columns down, we can see that there is mostly support for the hypothesis of a negative effect of poverty, but when controlling for other variables, the effects on social support are not impressive. In fact, if we concentrate on each social outcome (i.e., row-wise), one conclusion is that, when controlling for confounders, there are rather small effects of poverty on the probability of having access to social support. The opposite is true for political participation, where the consistency in the estimated effects of poverty is striking.

If we instead follow the columns, we ask whether any of the definitions of poverty is a better predictor of social outcomes than the others. The measure of economic deprivation appears to be the most stable one, followed by absolute poverty and the combined deprivation/absolute poverty variable. 14 The relative poverty measure is less able to predict social outcomes: in many instances it even has the non-expected sign. Interestingly, long-term poverty (as measured here) does not appear to have more severe negative consequences than absolute poverty in general.

Because some of our comparison groups are small, it is difficult to get high precision in the estimates, efficiency being a concern particularly in view of the set of control variables in Table  4 . Only 14 out of 62 estimates in models with controls are significant and in the right direction. Nonetheless, with 52 out of 62 estimates in these models having the expected sign, we believe that the hypothesis of a negative effect of poverty on social outcomes receives quite strong support.

Although control variables are not shown in the table, one thing should be noted about them: The reduction of coefficients when including control variables is almost exclusively driven by changes in civil status. 15 The time constant characteristics that are included are cross-sectionally related to both poverty and social outcomes, but they have only minor impacts on the estimated effects of poverty. This suggests that the conditioning on prior values of the dependent and independent variables eliminates much time invariant heterogeneity, which increases the credibility of estimates.

Conclusions

We set out to test a fundamental, but rarely questioned assumption in dominating definitions of poverty: whether shortage of economic resources has negative consequences for social relations and participation. By using longitudinal data from the Swedish Level-of-living Surveys 2000 and 2010, including repeated measures of poverty (according to several commonly used definitions) and four social outcome variables, we are able to come further than previous studies in estimating the relation between poverty and social outcomes: Our main conclusion is that there appears to be a causal relation between them.

Panel models suggest that falling into poverty increases the risk of weakening social relations and decreasing (civic and political) participation. Climbing out of poverty tends to have the opposite effects, a result that strengthens the interpretation of causality. The sample is too small to estimate the effect sizes with any precision, yet they appear to be substantial, with statistically significant estimates ranging between 5 and 21 % units.

While these findings are disquieting insofar as poverty goes, our results also suggest two more positive results. First, the negative effects of poverty appear to be reversible: once the private economy recovers, social outcomes improve. Secondly, the negative consequences are less for the closest social relations, whether there is someone there in cases of need (sickness, personal problems, etc.). This is in line with an interpretation of such close relations being unconditional: our nearest and dearest tend to hang on to us also in times of financial troubles, which may bolster risks for social isolation and psychological ill-being,

Our finding of negative effects of poverty on civic and political participation relates to the fears of a “downward spiral of social exclusion”, as there is a risk that the loss of less intimate social relations shrinks social networks and decreases the available social capital in terms of contacts that can be important for outcomes such as finding a job (e.g., Lin 2001 ; Granovetter 1974 ). However, Gallie et al. ( 2003 ) found no evidence for any strong impact of social isolation on unemployment, suggesting that the negative effects on social outcomes that we observe are unlikely to lead to self-reinforcement of poverty. Nevertheless, social relations are of course important outcomes in their own right, so if they are negatively affected by poverty it matters regardless of whether social relations in turn are important for other outcomes. Effects on political and civic participation are also relevant in themselves beyond individuals’ wellbeing, as they suggest a potentially democratic problem where poor have less of a voice and less influence on society than others.

Our results show the merits of our approach, to study the relation between poverty and social outcomes longitudinally. The fact that the poor have worse social relations and lower participation is partly because of selection. This may be because the socially isolated, or those with a weaker social network, more easily fall into poverty; or it can be because of a common denominator, such as poor health or social problems. But once we have stripped the analysis of such selection effects, we also find what is likely to be a causal relation between poverty and social relations. However, this effect of poverty on social outcomes, in turn, varies between different definitions of poverty. Here it appears that economic deprivation, primarily indicated by the ability of raising money with short notice, is the strongest predictor of social outcomes. Income poverty, whether in absolute or (particularly) relative terms, are weaker predictors of social outcomes, which is interesting as they are the two most common indicators of poverty in existing research.

Even if we are fortunate to have panel data at our disposal, there are limitations in our analyses that render our conclusions tentative. One is that we do not have a random allocation to the comparison groups at t 0 ; another that there is a 10-year span between the waves that we analyze, and both poverty and social outcomes may vary across this time-span. We have been able to address these problems by conditioning on the outcome at t 0 and by controlling for confounders, but in order to perform more rigorous tests future research would benefit from data with a more detailed temporal structure, and preferably with an experimental or at least quasi-experimental design.

Finally, our analyses concern Sweden, and given the position as an active welfare state with a low degree of inequality and low poverty rates, one can ask whether the results are valid also for other comparable countries. While both the level of poverty and the pattern of social relations differ between countries (for policy or cultural reasons), we believe that the mechanisms linking poverty and social outcomes are of a quite general kind, especially as the “costs for social participation” can be expected to be relative to the general wealth of a country—however, until comparative longitudinal data become available, this must remain a hypothesis for future research.

1 http://www.sofi.su.se/english/2.17851/research/three-research-departments/lnu-level-of-living .

2 We have tested various alternative codings and the overall pattern of results in terms of e.g., direction of effects and differences across poverty definitions are similar, but more difficult to present in an accessible way.

3 Our deprivation questions are however designed to reduce the impact of subjectivity by asking, e.g., about getting a specified sum within a specified time (see below).

4 In the equivalence scale, the first adult gets a weight of one, the second of 0.6, and each child gets a weight of 0.5.

5 We have also tried using single indicators (either a/b or i/ii) without detecting any meaningful difference between them. One would perhaps have assumed that poverty would be more consequential for having others over to one’s own place, but the absence of support for this can perhaps be understood in light of the strong social norm of reciprocity in social relations.

6 We have refrained from using information on voting and membership in trade unions and political parties, because these indicators do not capture the active, social nature of civic engagement to the same extent as participation in meetings and the holding of positions.

7 We have also estimated models with a more extensive health variable, a s ymptom index , which sums responses to 47 questions about self-reported health symptoms. However, this variable has virtually zero effects once global self-rated health is controlled, and does not lead to any substantive differences in other estimates. Adding the global health measure and the symptom index as TVC had no effect either.

8 Using the other indicators of poverty yields very similar results, although for some of those the difference between poor and non-poor is smaller.

9 We call these comparison groups ”never poor” and ”constantly poor” for expository purposes, although their poverty status pertains only to the years 2000 and 2010, i.e., without information on the years in between.

10 With this design we allow different effects of poverty on improvement versus deterioration of the social outcome. We have also estimated models with a lagged dependent variable, which constrains the effects of poverty changes to be of the same size for deterioration as for improvement of the social outcome. Conclusions from that analysis are roughly a weighted average of the estimates for deterioration and improvement that we report. As our analyses suggest that effects of poverty differ in size depending on the value of the lagged dependent variable (the social outcome) our current specification gives a more adequate representation of the process.

11 We have also tested models with a wider range of controls for, e.g., economic and social background (i.e. characteristics of the respondent’s parents), geography, detailed family type and a more detailed health variable, but none of these had any impact on the estimated poverty effects.

12 It is also possible that we register reverse causality, namely if worsening social outcomes that occur after t 0 lead to poverty at t 1 . This situation is almost inevitable when using panel data with no clear temporal ordering of events occurring between waves. However, reverse causality strikes us, in this case, as theoretically implausible.

13 We have also estimated models controlling for changes in health, which did not change the results.

14 If respondents’ judgments of the deprivation questions (access to cash margin and ability to pay rent, food, bills etc.) change due to non-economic factors that are related to changes in social relations, the better predictive capacity of the deprivation measure may be caused by a larger bias in this measure than in the (register-based) income measures.

15 As mentioned above, this variable may to some extent be endogenous (i.e., a mediator of the poverty effect rather than a confounder), in which case we get a downward bias of estimates.

Contributor Information

Carina Mood, Phone: +44-8-402 12 22, Email: [email protected] .

Jan O. Jonsson, Phone: +44 1865 278513, Email: [email protected] .

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Review article, poverty reduction of sustainable development goals in the 21st century: a bibliometric analysis.

• Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai, China

No Poverty is the top priority among 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research perspectives, methods, and subject integration of studies on poverty reduction have been greatly developed with the advance of practice in the 21st century. This paper analyses 2,459 papers on poverty reduction since 2000 using VOSviewer software and R language. Our conclusions show that (1) the 21st century has seen a sharp increase in publications of poverty reduction, especially the period from 2015 to date. (2) The divergence in research quantity and quality between China and Kenya is great. (3) Economic studies focus on inequality and growth, while environmental studies focus on protection and management mechanisms. (4) International cooperation is usually related to geographical location and conducted by developed countries with developing countries together. (5) Research on poverty reduction in different regions has specific sub-themes. Our findings provide an overview of the state of the research and suggest that there is a need to strengthen the integration of disciplines and pay attention to the contribution of marginal disciplines to poverty reduction research in the future.

Introduction

Global sustainable development is the common target of human society. “No Poverty” and “Zero Hunger” are two primary goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) , along with important premises in the completion of the goals of “Decent Work and Economic Growth Industry” and “Innovation and Infrastructure.” China has made great efforts in meeting its No Poverty targets. To achieve the goal of eliminating extreme poverty in the rural areas by the end of2020 1 , China has been carrying out a basic strategy of targeted approach named Jingzhunfupin 2 , which refers to implementing accurate poverty identification, accurate support, accurate management and tracking. By 2021, China accomplished its poverty alleviation target for the new era on schedule and achieved a significant victory 3 .

However, the worldwide challenges are still arduous. On the one hand, the recent global poverty eradication process has been further hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Bank shows that global extreme poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years, with the total expected to rise to about 150 million by the end of 2021 4 . People “return to poverty” are emerging around the world. On the other hand, people who got out of income poverty may still be trapped in deprivations in health or education. About 1.3 billion people (22%) still live in multidimensional poverty among 107 developing countries, according to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report released by the United Nations 5 . Meanwhile, the issue of inequality became more prominent, reflected by the number of people who are in relative poverty 6 .

In line with the dynamic poverty realities, the focusing of poverty research moved forward as well. Research frameworks have evolved from single dimension poverty to multidimensional poverty ( Bourguignon et al., 2019 ) and from income poverty to capacity poverty ( Zhou et al., 2021 ). Research perspectives concentrate on the macroscopic view, but have now turned to microscopic individual behavior analysis. Cross-integration of sociology, psychology, public management, and other disciplines also helps to expand and deepen the research ( Addison et al., 2008 ). Some cutting-edge researchers are making effort to shed light on the relationships between “No Poverty” and other SDGs. For example, Hubacek et al. (2017) verified the coherence of climate targets and achieving poverty eradication from a global perspective 7 . Li et al. (2021) discussed the impacts and synergies of achieving different poverty eradication goals on air pollutants in China. These novel papers give us insightful inspiration on combining poverty reduction with the resource or environmental problem including aspects like energy inequity, carbon emission. Hence, summarizing the research on different poverty realities and academic backgrounds should provide theoretical and empirical guidance for speeding up the elimination of poverty in the world ( Chen and Ravallion, 2013 ).

Previous review literature on poverty reduction all directed certain sub-themes. For example, Chamhuri et al. (2012) , Kwan et al. (2018) , Mahembe et al. (2019a) reviewed urban poverty, foreign aid, microfinance, and other topics, identifying the objects, causes, policies, and mechanisms of poverty and poverty reduction. Another feature of the review literature is that scholars often synthesize the articles and map the knowledge network manually, which constrains the amount of literature to be analyzed, leading to an inadequate understanding of poverty research. Manually literature review on specific fields of poverty reduction results in a research gap. Analysis delineating the general academic knowledge of poverty reduction is somewhat limited despite the abundance of research. Yet, following the trend toward scientific specialization and interdisciplinary viewpoints, the core and the periphery research fields and their connections have not been clearly described. Different studies are in a certain degree of segmentation because scholars have separately conducted studies based on their countries’ unique poverty background or their subdivision direction. Possibly, lacking communication and interaction will affect the overall development of poverty reduction research especially in the context of globalization. Less than 10 years are left to accomplish the UN sustainable development goals by 2030. It is urgent to view the previous literature from a united perspective in this turbulent and uncertain age.

Encouragingly, with advances in analytical technology, bibliometrics has become increasingly popular for developing representative summaries of the leading results ( Merediz-Solà and Bariviera, 2019 ). It has been widely applied in a variety of fields. In the domain of poverty study, Amarante et al. (2019) adopted the bibliometric method and reviewed thousands of papers on poverty and inequality in Latin America. Given above issues, we expand the scope of the literature and conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis to make a preliminary description of the research agenda on poverty reduction.

This paper presents an analysis of publications, keywords, citations, and the networks of co-authors, co-words, and co-citations, displaying the research status of the field, the hot spots, and evolution through time. We use R language and VOSviewer software to process and visualize data. Our contributions may be as follows. Firstly, we used the bibliometric method and reviewed thousands of papers together, helping keep pace with research advances in poverty alleviation with the rapid growth in the literature. Secondly, we clarified the core and periphery research areas, and their connections. These may be beneficial to handle the trend toward scientific specialization, as well as fostering communication and cooperation between disciplines, mitigating segmentation between the individual studies. Thirdly, we also provided insightful implications for future research directions. Discipline integration, intergenerational poverty, heterogeneous research are the directions that should be paid attention to.

The structure of this article is as follows. Methodology and Initial Statistics provides the methodology and initial statistics. Bibliometric Analysis and Network Analysis offer the bibliometric analysis and network visualization. The remaining sections offer discussions and conclusions.

Methodology and Initial Statistics

Bibliometrics, a library and information science, was first proposed by intelligence scientist Pritchard in 1969 ( Pritchard, 1969 ). It exploits information about the literature such as authors, keywords, citations, and institutions in the publication database. Bibliometric analyses can systematically and quantitatively analyze a large number of documents simultaneously. They can highlight research hotspots and detects research trends by exploring the time, source, and regional distribution of literature. Thus, bibliometric analyses have been widely used to help new researchers in a discipline quickly understand the extent of a topic ( Merediz-Solà and Bariviera, 2019 ).

Research tools such as Bibexcel, Histcite, Citespace, and Gephi have been created for bibliometric analysis. In this paper, R language and VOSviewer software are adopted. R language provides a convenient bibliometric analysis package for Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases, by which mathematical statistics were performed on authors, journals, countries, and keywords. VOSviewer software provides a convenient tool for co-occurrence network visualization, helping map the knowledge structure of a scientific field ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2010 ).

Data Collection

The bibliometric data was selected and downloaded from the Web of Science database ( www.webofknowledge.com ). We choose the WoS Core Collection, which contained SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, and A&HCI papers to focus on high-quality papers. The data was collected on March 19, 2021.

To identify the documents, we used verb phrases and noun phrases with the meaning of poverty reduction, such as “reduce poverty” and “poverty reduction,” as search terms, because there are several different expressions of “poverty reduction.” We also considered the combinations of “no poverty” and SDGs, “zero hungry” and “SDGs.” Because the search engine will pick up articles that have nothing to do with “poverty alleviation” depending on what words are used in the abstract, we employed keyword matching. Meanwhile, to prevent missing essential work that does not require author keywords, we also searched the title. Specifically, a retrieval formula can be written as [AK = (“search term”) OR TI = (“search term”)] in the advanced search box, where AK means author keywords and TI means title. Finally, we restricted the document types to “article” to obtain clear data. Thus, papers containing search phrases in headings or author keywords were marked and were guaranteed to be close to the desired topic.

A total of 2,551 studies were obtained, with 2,464 articles retained after removing duplicates. Table 1 presents the results for each search term. The phrasing of “poverty alleviation” and “poverty reduction” are written preferences.

TABLE 1 . Information of data collection.

Descriptive Analysis

Figure 1 gives details of each year’s publications during the period 2000–2021. The cut-off points of 2006 and 2015 divide the publication trends into three stages. The first period is 2000–2006, with approximately 40 publications per year. The second period is 2007–2014, in which production is between 80 and 130 papers annually. The third period is 2015–2021, with an 18.31% annual growth rate, indicating a growing interest in this field among scholars. Perhaps this is because 2006 was the last year of the first decade for the International Eradication of Poverty, and 2015 is the year that eliminating all forms of poverty worldwide was formally adopted as the first goal in the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development. Greater access to poverty reduction plan materials and data is a vital reason for the growth in papers as well.

FIGURE 1 . Annual scientific production.

We can notice that the milestone year is 1995 when we examine the time trend with broader horizons ( Figure 2 ). Before 1995, scant literature touches upon the topic of “poverty alleviation.” This confirms that in the time range we check the majority of the development of academic interest in this issue takes place. Thus, the 21st century has become a period of booming research on poverty reduction.

FIGURE 2 . Annual scientific production in a longer period.

Bibliometric Analysis

In this section, we offer the bibliometric analysis including the affiliation statistics, citation analysis and keywords analysis. Author analysis is not included because some authors’ abbreviations have led to statistical errors.

Affiliation Statistics

From 2000 to 2021, a total of 2,459 articles were published in 979 journals, a wide range. Table 2 lists the top ten journals, which together account for 439 (17.86%) of the articles in our data set. Development in Practice and World Development have the most publications, respectively 121 (4.92%) and 107 (4.35%), followed by Sustainability at 44 (1.8%). The top 10 journals mostly involve development or social issues, with some having high impact factors, including Food Policy (4.189) and Journal of Business Ethics (4.141).

TABLE 2 . Top 10 sources of publications.

Figure 3 presents the geographic distribution of the published articles on poverty reduction. As indicated in the legend, the white part on the map shows regions with zero published articles recorded in WoS. Darker shades indicate a greater number of articles published in the country or region. The US region is darkest on the map, with 593 articles published, followed by England, with 412 papers, and China, with 348 articles. Ranking fourth is South Africa, perhaps because South Africa is a pilot site for many poverty reduction projects. India, for the same reason, is similarly shaded.

FIGURE 3 . Spatial distribution of publication in all countries. Note: the data of all countries is from Web of Science.

Citation Analysis

The number of citations evaluates the influence and contribution of individual papers, authors, and nations. The top 10 countries in total citations are displayed in Table 3 . Consistent with the publication distribution, the leader is the United States (11,861), with the United Kingdom (8,735) and China (1,666) following. However, there is a broad gap between China and England in total citations. The average article citation ranks are quite different from the total citation list. Notably, Kenya takes first place based on its average citations per paper, though its total citations rank seventh, showing that Kenya’s poverty reduction practices and research are of great interest to a large number of scholars. By contrast, China’s average article citation is just roughly one-sixth of Kenya’s. The different pattern of the number of Chinese publications and citations shows that the quality of Chinese research must be improved even as it raises its publication quantity.

TABLE 3 . Top ten countries by total citations.

Table 4 lists the top 10 most cited articles with their first author, year, source, total citations, and total citations per year. Highly cited articles can be used as a benchmark for future research, and in some way signal the scientific excellence of each sub-field. For example, Wilson et al. (2006) reminded the importance of informal sector recycling to poverty alleviation. Daw et al. (2011) discussed the poverty alleviation benefits from ecosystem services (ES) with examples in developing countries. Pagiola et al. (2005) found that Payments for Environmental Services (PES) can alleviate poverty, and explored the key factors of this poverty mitigation effect using evidence from Latin America 8 . These three papers combined the environmental ecosystem with poverty alleviation. Beck et al. (2007) , Karnani (2007) explored the relationships between the SME sector and poverty alleviation and the private sector and poverty alleviation, respectively. Grindle (2004) discussed the necessary what, when, and how for good governance of poverty reduction. Cornwall and Brock (2005) took a critical look at how the three terms of “participation,” “empowerment” and “poverty reduction” have come to be used in international development policy. Adams and Page (2005) examined the impact of international migration and remittances on poverty. In the theory domain, Collier and Dollar (2002) derived a poverty-efficient allocation of aid. Hulme and Shepherd (2003) provided meaning for the term chronic poverty. Even from the present point of view, these scholars’ studies remain innovative and significant.

TABLE 4 . Top 10 papers with the highest total citations.

Keywords Analysis

The keywords clarify the main direction of the research and are regarded as a fine indicator for revealing the literature’s content ( Su et al., 2020 ). Two different types of keywords are provided by Web of Science. One is the author keywords, offered by the original authors, and another is the keywords plus, contrived by extracting from the cited reference. The frequency of both types of keywords in 2,459 papers is examined respectively in the whole sample and the sub-sample hereinafter for concentration and coverage.

Whole Sample

Table 5 lists the Top 10 most frequently used keywords and keyword-plus of total papers. Clearly author keywords are often repetitive, with “poverty,” “poverty reduction,” and “reduction” chosen as keywords for the same paper, but these do not dominate the keywords-plus. Hence, the keywords-plus may be more precise at identifying relevant content. However, we used author keywords for the literature screening.

TABLE 5 . Top 10 author keywords and keywords-plus with the highest frequency.

In addition to the terms “poverty” or “poverty reduction or alleviation,” we note that “China” and “Africa” occur frequently, with “India” and “Bangladesh” following when we expand the list from the Top 10 to Top 20 ( Supplementary Figure S1 ). The appearance of these places coincides with our speculation that the research was often conducted in Africa, East Asia, or South Asia once again, whereas the larger compositions are from developing countries or less developed countries.

The cumulative trend of TOP20 author keywords and keywords-plus is shown in Supplementary Figure S1 . The diagram also gives some information about other concerns bound up with anti-poverty programs, including “microfinance,” “food security,” “livelihoods,” “health,” “Economic-growth” and “income,” as numerous papers are focused on these aspects of poverty reduction.

Further, policy study and impact evaluation may be the core objectives of these papers. Vital evidence can be found in countless documents. Researchers measured the effect of policies or programs from various perspectives. In the study of Jalana and Ravallion (2003) , they indicated that ignoring foregone incomes overstated the benefits of the project when they estimated net gain from the Argentine workfare scheme. Meng (2013) found that the 8–7 plan increased rural income in China’s target counties by about 38% in 1994–2000, but had only a short-term impact 9 . Galiani and McEwan (2013) studied the heterogeneous influences of the Programa de Asignación Familiar (PRAF) program, in which implemented education cash transfer and health cash transfer to people of varying degrees of poverty in Honduran. Maulu et al. (2021) concluded that rural extension programs can provide a sustainable solution to poverty. Some studies also have drawn relatively fresh conclusions or advice on poverty reduction projects. Mahembe et al. (2019a) found that aid disbursed in production sectors, infrastructure and economic development was more effective in reducing poverty through retrospecting empirical studies of official development assistance (ODA) or foreign aid on poverty reduction. Meinzen-Dick et al. (2019) reviewed the literature on women’s land rights (WLR) and poverty reduction, but found no papers that directly investigate the link between WLR and poverty. Huang and Ying (2018) constructed a literature review that included the necessity and the ways of introducing a market mechanism to government poverty alleviation. Mbuyisa and Leonard (2017) demonstrated that information and communication technology (ICT) can be used as a tool for poverty reduction by Small and Medium Enterprises.

Web of Science provides the publications of each journal category ( Figure 4 ). Economics is the largest type of journal, followed by development studies and environmental studies. Education should be regarded as an important way to address the intergenerational poverty trap. However, we note that journals in education are only a fraction of the total number of journals. Psychology journals are in a similar position, though endogenous drivers of poverty reduction have been increasingly emphasized in recent research. The detailed data can be found in the supplementary documents. To investigate the differences between the subdivisions of the research, we chose economic and environmental journals as sub-samples for further analysis.

FIGURE 4 . Visualization of journal category from the web of science.

As Supplementary Figure S2 shows, the TOP10 author keywords in economic sample are similar to the whole sample. We note that microfinance is a real heated research domain both in economic and whole sample. The poor usually have multiple occupations or self-employment in very small businesses ( Banerjee and Duflo, 2007 ). The poor often have less access to formal credit. Karlan and Zinman (2011) examined a microcredit program in the Philippines and found that microcredit does expand access to informal credit and increase the ability against risk. Banerjee et al. (2015a) reported the results of an assessment of a random microcredit scheme in India, which increased the investment and profits of small-scale enterprises managed by the poor.

Several new keywords enter the TOP20 list in the economic field, including “targeting,” “income distribution,” “productivity,” “employment,” “rural poverty,” “access,” and “program.” “Targeting” is an essential topic in the economic field. It concerns the effectiveness of poverty reduction program and social fairness. Hence, an abundance of literature reviews the definitions of poverty that allow individuals to apply for poverty alleviation programs. Park et al. (2002) , Bibi and Duclos (2007) , Kleven and Kopczuk (2011) , discussed the inclusion error and exclusion error in programs’ targeting and identification under the criterion of poverty lines or specific tangible asset poverty agency indicators (e.g., whether households have color televisions, pumps or flooring, and so forth). In practice, Niehaus et al. (2013) tested the accuracy of different agency indicators to allocate Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards in India and found that using a greater number of poverty indicators led to a deterioration in targeting effectiveness while creating widespread violations in the implementation because less qualified families are more likely to pay bribes to investigators. Bardhan and Mookherjee (2005) explored the targeting effectiveness of decentralization in the implementation of anti-poverty projects. He and Wang (2017) assessed the targeting accuracy of the College Graduate Village Officials (CGVOs) project, a unique human capital redistribution policy in China, on poverty alleviation 10 .

The terms “inequality” and “growth” are first and second in the keywords-plus. This may be because inequality and growth are two of the major components in poverty changes in the economic field, which are stressed in the studies of Datt and Ravallion (1992) , Beck et al. (2007) . The ranking may also imply that the economics of the 21st century is more concerned with human welfare than the pursuit of rapid economic growth. Since a growing number of organizations are trying to build human capital to improve the livelihoods of their clients and further their mission of lifting themselves out of poverty. McKernan (2002) showed that social development programs are important components of microfinance program success. Similarly, Karlan and Valdivia (2006) argued that increasing business training can factually improve business knowledge, practice effectiveness, and revenue. Besides, cash transfers are widely adopted to reduce income inequality and improve education and the health status of poor groups ( Banerjee et al., 2015b ; Sedlmayr et al., 2020 ). Benhassine et al. (2015) noted that the Tayssir Project in Morocco, a cash transfer project, achieved an increasing improvement of school enrolment rate in the treatment group, especially for girls 11 .

We combine the journal types of “Environmental Studies” and “Environmental Sciences” into one unit for analysis ( Supplementary Figure S3 ). In the environmental field, the terms “conservation” and “management” are ranked first and second. This field also involves “ecosystem services,” “climate change,” “biodiversity conservation,” and “deforestation,” with rapid growth in recent years. These themes were discussed by Alix-Garcia et al. (2013) , Alix-Garcia et al. (2015) , Sims and Alix-Garcia (2017) in their investigations of the effect of conditional cash transfers on environmental degradation, the poverty alleviation benefits of the ecosystem service payment project, and comparison of the effects in protected areas and of ecosystem service payment on poverty reduction in Mexico. The differences in economic research in poverty reduction and environmental field show the necessity of strengthening cooperation between disciplines.

Network Analysis

Network relationship is established by the co-occurrence of two types of information. It enables mapping of the knowledge nodes with a joint perspective, instead of viewing scientific ideas in isolation. The data is imported into VOSviewer software after removing duplicates by R package. We then provide the co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, and co-keywords analysis.

Co-Authorship Analysis

Co-authorship may reflect international cooperation as shown by the country distribution ( Figure 5 ). When the authors of two countries have a cooperative relationship, a line is generated to connect the corresponding countries. The size of nodes reflects the number of countries of origin of the authors. The width of the line represents the cooperative frequency between them, and the different colors mark the partition of the countries.

FIGURE 5 . International networks of co-authorship.

The network includes a total of 1,449 countries, of which 92 meet the threshold of at least five instances of cooperation. The United States, United Kingdom, China, and South Africa have the strongest interlinkage with other countries or regions. Whether countries in each cluster demonstrate international academic cooperation on poverty reduction is sometimes based on geographic location. For example, the red cluster includes the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador. These countries mainly lie in the Americas. The United Kingdom, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa are in the yellow group, located in Europe and Africa. The green cluster includes China, Malaysia, and Bangladesh, all Asian countries. The distribution of countries on each cluster and the map as a whole show that research on poverty alleviation is usually conducted by developed and developing nations together. This may be due to anti-poverty programs in developed countries usually being subsidized by international non-governmental organizations, as shown by the branch literature devoted to foreign aid and poverty reduction ( Mahembe et al., 2019b ).

Co-Citation Analysis

Co-citation analysis can locate the core classical literature efficiently ( Zhang et al., 2020 ). Pioneering studies of co-citation analysis were performed by Small (1973) . When an article cited two other articles, a relationship of co-citation will be established between these two “cited” articles ( González-Alcaide et al., 2016 ). Since co-citation aims at reference, it targets the knowledge base for the past.

Figure 6 displays the co-citation network of the cited references. The functions of the sizes and colors are the same as in Figure 5 . The most cited papers in the co-citation relationship are the studies of Foster et al. (1984) , Sen et al. (1999) , Dollar and Kraay (2002) , which respectively explore poverty measures, globalization and development, and the growth impact for the poor.

FIGURE 6 . Cited reference network of co-citation.

Figure 7 gives the co-citation heat map of sources, based on their density. We set the threshold at 20, and 78 cited sources remained on the map. Different colors signify different clusters of co-citation. The lighter the color, the more frequently the journals are cited. There are four major categories. World development and the Journal of Development Economics have the largest influence on the red cluster, which mainly contains development and economic studies. The second cluster is green and includes the fields of energy, environment, and ecology, with Ecology Economics as its brightest star. The Journal of Business Ethics and Annals of Tourism Research are the most-cited journals in the third and fourth cluster, which represents the fields of business and tourism. Some psychology studies exist in transitional spaces between business studies and economic studies, suggesting a trend of interdisciplinary work. In the past 10 years, we checked manually that psychology and other interdisciplinary research performed well. Many papers were published in Science or Nature. In the research of Mani et al. (2013) , there was a causal relationship between poverty and psychological function. Poverty reduced the cognitive performance of the poor, because poverty consumes spiritual resources, leaving fewer cognitive resources to guide choices and actions. Another psychology-based experiment in Togo showed that personal proactive training increased the profits of poor businesses by 30%, while traditional training influence was not significant ( Campos et al., 2017 ). In the study of Ludwig et al. (2012) , they revealed that the shift from high-poverty to low-poverty communities resulted in significant long-term improvements in physical and mental health and subjective well-being and had a continuing impact on collective efficacy and neighborhood security.

FIGURE 7 . Cited source density network of co-citation.

Co-Words Analysis

The analysis of co-words was performed after the co-citation analysis. Since it is hard to explain the changes in cluster from year to another in a co-citation map, Callon et al. (1983) proposed co-word analysis to identify and visualize scientific networks and their evolution. Based on our keyword analysis and following the arguments of Zhang et al. (2016) , the knowledge structures of author keywords and keywords plus are similar, but keywords plus can mirror a large proportion of the author keywords when the threshold of the number of instances of a word exceeds 10. The merger of two types of keywords will inflate the total number of words, leaving unique words representing the latest hot spot with little chance to be selected. Therefore, we conduct the co-word analysis using keywords plus to map the structure.

We set the minimum number of occurrences to 15, and 100 words with the greatest link strength are selected from the total of 2,774. As shown in Figure 8 , keywords plus generates 4 clusters. To our delight, each cluster does reflect the research priorities of each region.

FIGURE 8 . Keywords-plus co-occurrence cluster map.

The first cluster (red) reveals studies concerning livelihood, conservation, management, climate change and agriculture. These topics have strong interlinkage to Africa, suggesting that poverty reduction in Africa is often related to basic livelihood and ecology. The poor in Africa rely on the ecological conditions heavily as they are facing a more disadvantaged climate and resources. Therefore, their poverty reduction process is sometimes highly unstable and subject to considerable internal and external constraints. Stevenson and Irz (2009) concluded that the numerous studies presented almost no evidence of aquaculture reducing poverty directly.

The second cluster (green) represents studies focused on economic growth and income inequality, common in China and India. This pattern may imply that papers of this cluster focus on the economic conditions of the poor. Other studies in this cluster are related to migration, health, and welfare. The third cluster (blue) is the poverty reduction strategies on microfinance and empowerment, which are associated with Bangladesh where the Grameen Bank, one of the most notable and intensely researched microcredit programs, was founded ( McKernan, 2002 ). This cluster’s studies are interested in approaches such as business, markets, and education, to help the poor rise from poverty. The fourth cluster (yellow) contains studies of poverty reduction programs on environmental services in Latin America, where the environmental problem is intertwined with poverty traps.

Figure 9 shows the time trend of keywords-plus co-occurrence. Because the keywords plus are extracted from the cited references, they can reflect the changes in hotspots from relatively early to the most recent years. As can be seen, education, technology, and environmental services are the latest keywords in research on poverty reduction.

FIGURE 9 . Keywords-plus co-occurrence time trend map.

There are several limitations to our bibliometric analysis, though we undertake an extensive review of the literature. First, we inevitably lose a fraction of the literature. keywords and title are chosen as the criteria for helping precisely concentrate the search results on our subject. However, the Web of Science core collection on which our study relied is weak in the coverage of literature to some degree. Hence, there is a trade-off between the quantity and the quality of literature. We choose the latter, leading to an unclear restriction of the comprehensiveness of research. Second, we can identify recent research status but are not able to locate the Frontier accurately. Network mapping requires selecting a minimum occurrence threshold for including corresponding authors, keywords, and citations into the network. Because a certain number of citations or new hotspots take several years to be widely used and studied, this threshold may neglect these important data ( Linnenluecke et al., 2020 ). One possible solution is to manually examine the latest published papers in high-quality journals. Third, the mining of subfields is not deep enough. In other words, bibliometrics cannot sort out the main conclusions of literature on poverty reduction. For instance, we do not know whether the conclusion of different studies are consistent for the same poverty alleviation project. Neither do we know the exact mechanism of the anti-poverty program through bibliometric analysis, which limits the possibility of finding research points from controversial conclusions or mechanisms.

However, several points are worth taking into consideration for the future. To start with, poverty reduction is a natural interdisciplinary social science problem. Interdisciplinary has become a major research trend. Except applying cash transfer to ecological programs, associations are raised. We may discuss whether the combination of finance and ecology will bring positive benefits to financial stability, ecological protection, and poverty reduction by the means of capitalization of ecological resources or establishing the ecological bank. Our analysis suggests that some unheeded branch disciplines like human ethology are contributing to poverty reduction research as well. Thus, we need to investigate the interdisciplinary integration and the contribution of marginal disciplines on poverty reduction.

Then, more attention should be paid the intergenerational poverty. It requires researchers to extend the time span of observation and questionnaire investigation. Some work has been done. One example is the research of Hussain and Hanjra (2004) . They reviewed literature and clarified that advances in irrigation technologies, such as micro-irrigation systems, have strong anti-poverty potential, alleviating both temporary and chronic poverty. Another example is the research of Jones (2016) , which indicated that conditional cash transfers (CCTs) could indeed interrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty through human capital investments. However, there remains a lot of work to be done for preventing the next generation from returning to poverty in this turbulent period. In a related matter, the role of education in isolating intergenerational poverty or returning to the poverty trap should be highlighted. What kind of education would more effectively help families out of poverty, quality education or vocational skill education? How to allocate educational resources effectively? For poor students, what kind of psychological intervention in education is needed to mitigate the impact of native families and help them grow up confidently? Lots of questions waiting for empirical answering, yet we note that the educational journal only took a little fraction of the total journals in Section 4.3.2.

Next, poverty does exist in prosperous conurbations though the focal point obtained from keywords analysis is “rural area”. Nevertheless, both the slums in the center of big cities and circulative flowing refugees are experiencing more relative deprivation, representing a state of instability. Chamhuri et al. (2012) reviewed the objects, causes, and policies of urban poverty. Exploring how to lift a particular small economic low-lying area out of poverty is also of great significance. Follow-up researches should keep up.

Moreover, poverty alleviation needs to be based on individual or group-specific characteristics to some degree. It is not feasible to implement a unified poverty alleviation policy on a large scale. Exquisitely designed randomized controlled trials are used to reveal the heterogeneous influence of poverty alleviation programs. Haushofer and Shapiro (2016) compared the difference between monthly transfers and one-time lump-sum transfers. The subdivision research on the effect of poverty reduction programs should be strengthened. We imagine that a model may be formed to predict the total poverty reduction effects of different policies in the various region to obtain an optimized strategy of “No Poverty” in the future.

Lastly, exploring whether poverty reduction will be contradictory or coordinate with other SDGs might be a popular direction. About the literature review, two aspects can be improved. The first is merging with other databases to compare the loss of the trade-off between quality and quantity. Next, subsequent literature reviews need to explore how to better combine manual literature collation and bibliometrics, especially when the subject is a large topic.

Poverty reduction is one of the objectives of welfare economics and development economics. It is a classic and lasting topic and has recently come into the limelight. Poverty reduction studies in the 21st century are usually based on specific poverty alleviation projects or policies in developing countries. Researchers examine numerous topics, including whether the target audience has been precisely identified and covered in the design and implementation process, whether poverty reduction projects have been proved effective, what mechanisms have contributed to the success of poverty reduction projects, and what caused their failure. The aim of this paper is to summarize the amount, growth trajectory, citation, and geographic distribution of the poverty reduction literature, map the intellectual structure, and highlight emerging key areas in the research domain using the bibliometric method. We use the VOSviewer software and the R language as tools to analyze 2,459 articles published since 2000.

We have several conclusions. First, the 21st century is a period of booming research on poverty reduction, and the number of publications has increased sharply since 2015. Second, in affiliation analysis, Development in Practice and World Development are the top publications. The most frequently cited source of co-citations are World Development , Ecology Economics, Journal of Business Ethics, and Annals of Tourism Research , respectively the centers of the fields of economics, energy, the environment, and ecology, business, and tourism. Third, there are differences in the national and regional distribution of literature, based on the number of publications and citations. The United States led both the publication list and the total citation list, followed by the United Kingdom, China, and South Africa. Yet, there is a huge variation in the number of citations, with the United States and the United Kingdom having almost 5 to 6 times more citations than China and South Africa. In terms of average citations, Kenya is the best performer. The average citation amount in China is low, implying that Chinese scholars need to improve the quality of their literature. Fourth, in the keyword analysis, policy discussion and impact estimation are the two major themes. The keywords related to poverty reduction are different among different disciplines. Economics pays more attention to inequality and growth, while environmental disciplines pay more attention to protection and management. This may suggest that strengthening the cooperation between disciplines will lead to more diversified research perspectives. Fifth, in the co-author analysis, international cooperation is usually related to geographical location. For example, there is a large amount of cooperation between Europe and Africa, within Asia, and between North and South America. At the same time, poverty reduction research often shows the cooperative patterns of developed and developing countries. Last, in the co-keyword analysis, four clusters reflect the research priorities of each region. Poverty reduction in Africa is often related to basic livelihood and ecology. The economic conditions of the poor are the concerns of research in China and India. The South Asia region is also the location of microcredit program experiments. Poverty traps are intertwined with environmental problems in Latin America’s literature.

Our findings also offer inspiration for the future. There may be a need to investigate the interdisciplinary integration. Intergenerational and urban poverty deserve attention. The heterogeneous design of poverty alleviation strategies needs to be further deepened. It might be a popular direction to figure out whether poverty reduction will be contradictory with other SDGs and conduct scenario simulation. We identify shortcomings as well. Finally, precisely identifying research frontiers requires further exploration.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant number 72022009).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.754181/full#supplementary-material

1 The extreme poverty criterion set by World Bank is 1.9$ a day in purchasing power parties (PPP), https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/policy-research-note-03-ending-extreme-poverty-and-sharing-prosperity-progress-and-policies . The China poverty alleviation target in 2020 is to eliminate absolute poverty, which is defined as living less than 2,300 yuan per person per day at 2010 constant prices. In addition to living above the absolute poverty line, people who must reached other five qualitative criteria can be calculated getting rid of absolute poverty, which is no worries about food, clothing, basic medical care, compulsory education and housing safety

2 Jingzhunfupin is a general term of Chinese targeted poverty alleviation work model. Opposite to the haploid poverty alleviation, different assistance policies will be formulated according to the different category of poverty, distinctive causes, dissimilar background of poor households and their divergent living environment

3 https://enapp.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202102/26/AP60382a17a310f03332f97555.html . https://www.bbc.com/news/56213271

4 https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

5 The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) since 2010. It has been published annually by OPHI and in the Human Development Reports (HDRs) ever since. https://ophi.org.uk/multidimensional-poverty-index/

6 Relative poverty is another poverty measurement to reflect the underlying economic gradient. It is induced from the relative deprivation theory. Countries set the relative poverty line at a constant proportion of the country or year-specific mean (or median) income in practice ( https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00127 )

7 This paper mainly found that eradicating extreme poverty, i.e., moving people to an income above $1.9 purchasing power parity (PPP) a day, does not jeopardize the climate target. That is to say, the climate target and no poverty goal is consistent and coordinated

8 This paper indicated that Payments for Environmental Services may reduce poverty mainly by making payments to poor natural resource managers in upper watersheds. The effects depend on how many participants are poor, the poor’s ability to participate, and the amounts paid

9 8–7 plan is the second wave of China’s poverty alleviation program. The Leading Group renewed poverty line and the National Poor Counties list in 1993. Targeted counties received three major interventions: credit assistance, budgetary grants for investment and public employed projects (i.e., Food-for-Work).

10 In the College Graduate Village Officials (CGVOs) program, the government hire outstanding graduates to work in the rural areas, for example as the village committee secretary, to help rural development and alleviate poverty. In this paper, the College Graduate Village Officials assisted eligible poor households to understand and apply for relevant subsidies, which reduced elite capture of pro-poor programs and move forward poverty alleviation process

11 The Tayssir Project was labeled the Education Support Program, sending a positive signal of its educative value

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Keywords: poverty reduction, bibliometric analysis, VOSviewer, sustainable development goals, 21st century

Citation: Yu Y and Huang J (2021) Poverty Reduction of Sustainable Development Goals in the 21st Century: A Bibliometric Analysis. Front. Commun. 6:754181. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.754181

Received: 06 August 2021; Accepted: 01 October 2021; Published: 18 October 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Yu and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Yanni Yu, [email protected] ; Jinghong Huang, [email protected]

† These authors have contributed equally to this work

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Poverty Research Proposal

Introduction, poverty: statement of the problem, significance of the study, relevant literature review, methodology.

For a long time, poverty has been perceived to constitute lack or inadequacy of basic needs, including food, clothing, and shelter. The levels by which different societies achieve these three basic essentials vary, and this explains the differences in poverty levels among different societies. Today, America is described to have the highest level of poverty rate compared to other industrialized countries (Garcia, 2011).

To justify this, the recent and most current statistics from the Census Bureau shows that the level and rate of poverty in USA is increasing, with minority ethnic groups being the most disadvantaged (Dye, 2010).

In the past, numerous poverty reduction policies have been formulated and implemented, but their overall impact remains below expectations, as the main beneficiaries are the middle class in expense of the poor (Dye, 2010). Therefore, the situation calls for paradigm shift in policy formulation and implementation.

In the year 2010, poverty rate in USA stood at 15.1% up from 14.3% recorded in the previous year-2009 (USA Census Bureau, 2011). At the same time, it was noted that poverty rate for the last four years has been increasing at an estimated rate of 2.6%.

On overall, in 2010, estimates indicated that about 46.2 million Americans are poor and the rate of poverty increased was observed to affect almost all major ethnic groups in America: Whites, African American, Asians, Hispanic (USA Census Bureau, 2011).

Furthermore, the 2010 official statistics indicated the highest rate of poverty the country had experienced and recorded since 1993. Therefore, in order to address this issue of increasing poverty, there is need to conduct an action research that investigates public policy initiatives in USA with regard to poverty, and subsequently propose the most effective public policy that can be pursued successfully.

Poverty remains an issue that ought to be addressed in the American society as a way of achieving the American Dream. Social inclusion goals and objectives postulate that, the well-being of humankind is the essence of stability, peace, and societal development.

Therefore, addressing poverty is one way of achieving social inclusion goals. At the same time, there is need for an effective public policy that comprehensively addresses the issues of poverty in the country. Therefore, this study possesses the ability to create a sound body of knowledge that in turn can be used to create an effective public policy framework.

Poverty level in USA is increasing at gradual rate, and the overall impact of this to the society is huge (Garcia, 2011). Addressing poverty has assumed and utilized unilateral public policy models that in turn have led to inadequacy in tackling the issue of poverty.

For instance, many of the convectional poverty policies address education, employment, social security, health, economic growth, and tax (Anonymous, 2006). This has been done in separateness and the result has been construction, formulation, and implementation of skewed and weak poverty reduction models.

There is need to establish broad-based understanding of poverty and know that it interplays with other factors and elements simultaneously, hence any attempt to address poverty requires addressing the interplay of accompanying factors.

According to Corak (2005), in order to fight poverty, social and physical infrastructure and services can be funded and maintained effectively if the target groups are involved in designing, implementing, and monitoring them, as well as in ensuring accountability of the government officials responsible for such policies.

Primary and secondary research methods will be utilized, where primary data will be generated through actual field research techniques, while secondary data will be generated from works already done in the field. Furthermore, reliability and validity of information will be enhanced through use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques.

This will see the use of questionnaires, field interviews, poverty program surveys, and in-depth discussion. The aim of this will be to ensure that the public policy to be designed captures the aspect and essence of poverty and subsequent reduction strategies in broad perspective.

Poverty remains a social issue that requires clear strategies of addressing it. Efforts in the past have bore fruits, but given recent trends of increasing cases of poverty in the society, there is an urgent need to address poverty comprehensively. It is from this fact that it is recommended that addressing poverty in modern America require an action plan originating from an inclusive and integrated social equity policy strategy.

Anonymous. (2006). How can we solve the problem of poverty . Web.

Corak, M (2005). Equality of Opportunity and Inequality across the Generations: Challenges Ahead. Policy Options , 26(3), 78–83.

Dye, T.R. (2010). Understanding public policy (13th ed.). Longman: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Garcia, G. (2011). Mexican American and Immigrant Poverty in the United States . NY: Springer.

USA Census Bureau . (2011). ‘Poverty Highlights . USA Federal Press. Web.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Poverty Research Proposal." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/poverty-research-proposal/.

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Relative educational poverty: conceptual and empirical issues

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This paper’s goal is to discuss implications for the empirical study of low educational status arising from the use of the concept of educational poverty in research. It has two related conceptual foci: (1) the relationship of educational poverty with material poverty and to what extent useful parallels exist, and (2) the distinction of absolute and relative (educational) poverty and whether the notion of absolute (educational) poverty is a sensible one. For the concept of educational poverty to be analytically fruitful, clear conceptualisation and operationalisation of the relevant issues are required. The paper contributes to the aim of providing these by building on existing work on educational poverty and by drawing on relevant work on material poverty as well as discussing some conceptual challenges and some of the challenges arising from the operationalisation of the concepts. Some of these challenges are illustrated using examples based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). In a further step, factors which may lead to a greater risk of being in relative educational poverty are analysed, employing the method multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The empirical findings highlight the relative nature of educational qualifications: the usefulness of a basic school leaving qualification has changed over time, and it has not been the same for different groups. Thus, a conceptualisation of low educational status as educational poverty has been shown to be useful, and it has been demonstrated that the relative nature of educational poverty ought to be taken into account by researchers.

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1 Introduction

Poverty in the sense of material poverty is an everyday term. While the details of an expert definition of material poverty may differ from the way it is understood by lay people, the concept will be immediately understood by everyone more or less in the way in which it is intended. The term “educational poverty”, on the other hand, has not entered everyday vocabulary. This concept was introduced into academic discourse by Allmendinger ( 1999 ) and, up to now, it has mostly been taken up by German and other continental European scholars (e.g., Lohmann and Ferger 2014 ; Solga 2011 ; Blossfeld et al. 2019 ; Quenzel and Hurrelmann 2019a ). Given that it is distinct from the concept of inequality in education, Footnote 1 it has the potential to be an additional conceptual tool for analysing the role of education in enabling participation in modern society. Throughout this paper, educational poverty will be understood as a lack of formal qualifications Footnote 2 which precludes participation in the labour market (and possibly affects other spheres of life such as family life and health) in a way not experienced by individuals with higher levels of education.

Education and the certification of education in the form of qualifications are more important than ever, given technological progress and the accompanying demand for a highly skilled workforce. This tight coupling of skills and job opportunities suggests that the labour market is likely to be the most important area of life on which education has an impact. In addition, there is some evidence that educational status matters in other areas, too: Solga ( 2011 ) reports lower rates of marriage and, among those who do marry, higher rates of divorce for individuals with a low level of qualifications. They also remain childless more frequently than people with higher qualifications, but, conversely, they are also more likely to experience parenthood during their teenage years. In addition, their health tends to be worse (Quenzel and Hurrelmann 2019b ).

In research on material poverty, a distinction is commonly made between absolute and relative poverty, with the latter defining poverty in relation to some standard which can vary between points in time and between societies. As can be seen from the connection between education and the labour market noted above, it seems plausible that this distinction might also be relevant to educational poverty, since the effect on an individual’s life of their educational status is likely to be at least partially dependent on how important educational status is in a particular labour market. Indeed, the relative value of educational qualifications (and other material and immaterial resources) has been discussed extensively (key authors are Dore 1976 ; Hirsch 1976 ; see also, e.g., Thurow 1977 ), though a lack of formal qualifications has not been explicitly conceived as educational poverty by these authors.

This paper’s goal is to discuss implications for the empirical study of low educational status arising from the use of the concept of educational poverty—developed analogously to material poverty—in such research. It has two related conceptual foci: (1) the relationship of educational poverty with material poverty and to what extent useful parallels exist, and (2) the distinction of absolute and relative (educational) poverty and whether the notion of absolute (educational) poverty is a sensible one. For the concept of educational poverty to be analytically fruitful, clear conceptualisation and operationalisation of the relevant issues are required. This paper contributes to the aim of providing these by building on existing work on educational poverty (see above: Allmendinger 1999 ; Blossfeld et al. 2019 ; Lohmann and Ferger 2014 ; Solga 2011 ) and by drawing on relevant work on material poverty as well as discussing some conceptual challenges and some of the challenges arising from the operationalisation of the concepts. I will illustrate some of these challenges using examples based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). In a further step, again drawing on NEPS data, I will analyse three factors which may lead to a greater risk of being in relative educational poverty. They are sex, school qualification, and cohort (i.e., whether someone was born by 1965 or later). Sex is of interest because of the differing experiences of men and women over time (e.g., Blossfeld et al. 2019 ), school qualifications are a prerequisite for most forms of post-school qualification and, in addition, they can be used by employers offering apprenticeship as a screening device, with higher school qualifications presumed to indicate greater suitability for an apprenticeship, and cohort matters because of the changing context in which qualifications are obtained and used (e.g., Lohmann and Ferger 2014 ). Clearly, other factors are likely to be involved in educational poverty (though the literature on what these may be is not very detailed), but given the need, for analytical reasons, to restrict the number of factors, I am concentrating here on ones of particular theoretical interest.

2 Challenges

2.1 conceptual issues, 2.1.1 material versus educational poverty.

Poverty, as noted in the Introduction, is commonly understood to refer to material poverty, and I therefore begin by discussing the relationship between material and educational poverty, noting similarities and differences. Peter Townsend, the renowned scholar in the field, describes poverty thus: “Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the type of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and the amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved, in the societies to which they belong. Their resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average family that they are in effect excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities.” (Townsend 1979 , p.31) Clearly, material poverty affects nearly all spheres of life (including, of course, education as part of a reciprocal relationship: children growing up in poverty are less likely to obtain a high level of education, and individuals with low levels of education are more likely to experience poverty because of their greater difficulties in obtaining adequately-paid work). As I noted in the Introduction, insofar as educational status affects an individual’s opportunities in the labour market, educational poverty can also be expected to affect a wide range of areas of life, restricting societal participation in a variety of ways.

One feature of material poverty is that it is not always stable. Some individuals move in and out of poverty, for example because they lose and find work repeatedly. In fact, Townsend ( 1979 , pp.56/57) notes that the proportion of the population who are always poor is smaller than that of those who experience occasional spells of poverty, but who do not remain poor permanently. In addition, many more people live “under the constant threat of poverty and regard some of the resources flowing to them, or available to them, as undependable” (p. 57). Footnote 3 By contrast, educational resources are likely to be more stable. Once someone obtains a qualification, they will not lose it again, it remains linked to the person. While it is possible to move out of educational poverty by gaining qualifications later in life, these then cannot be lost either. However, relative to the demands of the labour market, qualifications may decrease in value over an individual’s lifetime: a level of qualification which would have been deemed sufficient at the beginning of someone’s working life may later on be considered insufficient with regard to the changing demands of the labour market. In that sense, the person would become educationally poor over time, but this would be a more gradual process compared to the possible fluctuations described by Townsend in relation to material poverty. Footnote 4 In a similar way, what would count as educationally not poor for parents might be seen as educationally poor for their children.

Another obvious difference between material and educational poverty is that it is perfectly possible to transfer money to people who are considered unacceptably poor (political will and availability of funds permitting, though given individuals’ life situations, the ameliorating effects of such transfers cannot be guaranteed). But it is not possible simply to transfer “education” onto people who have been unable to achieve some minimum standard (at least not legitimately). It is possible to implement educational programmes to allow them to catch up, but with no guarantee of success.

2.1.2 Relative versus absolute educational poverty

Rowntree (quoted in Townsend 1979 , p.33) defines families whose “total earnings are insufficient to obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency as being in primary poverty”. Clearly, this describes a state of deprivation which would be considered as poverty regardless of historical period, society or political context, in other words, it is an absolute conceptualisation of poverty. Townsend (and others), however, does not agree that there is such a thing as absolute poverty. Instead, he goes on to show that the “minimum necessaries” can only ever be determined relative to the societal standard relevant at the time, coming to the conclusion that “… definitions which are based on some conception of ‘absolute’ deprivation disintegrate upon close and sustained examination and deserve to be abandoned. … In fact, people's needs even for food are conditioned by the society in which they live and to which they belong, and just as needs differ in different societies so they differ in different periods of the evolution of single societies. Any conception of poverty as ‘absolute’ is therefore inappropriate and misleading” (p. 38). Footnote 5 We can see a parallel with educational poverty: illiteracy would clearly seem to qualify as a definition of absolute educational poverty, as would a complete absence of qualifications. However, there were historical periods during which illiteracy would not have prevented an individual from participation in normal societal activities, and a lack of formal qualifications certainly would not have done so, so illiterate individuals and those lacking formal qualifications would not have been considered educationally poor (in fact, the concept itself would have been meaningless). Furthermore, the phenomenon of “illiteracy” can be discussed as illiteracy, an alternative conceptualisation as “educational poverty” is not needed. On the other hand, in many societies today it is perfectly possible to have basic literacy and even some educational certificates and still be considered educationally poor. It seems, then, that Townsend’s concerns re absolute material poverty apply equally to the concept of educational poverty which has to be defined relative to the historical period and the societal context in which the individual lives.

In introducing the concept of educational poverty, Allmendinger ( 1999 ) nevertheless takes up the distinction between absolute and relative poverty, defining absolute minimum standards of educational qualifications for each country under study, with those falling below this standard considered educationally poor. Footnote 6 She then defines relative educational poverty by referring to the distribution of educational certificates in the relevant country or society. Blossfeld et al. ( 2019 ), drawing on Allmendinger, also distinguish between absolute and relative educational poverty, though their empirical analysis based on NEPS data only considers absolute educational poverty. According to Quenzel and Hurrelmann ( 2019b ), this is a common way of proceeding, with many scholars discussing the conceptual difference between absolute and relative poverty, but then ignoring the distinction in their empirical analyses.

The fact that the distribution of resources (for material poverty) or educational certificates (for educational poverty) is employed as a standard against which relative poverty may be defined shows the connection between inequality and poverty, since inequality is also assessed by referring to the distribution of relevant resources. However, a large amount of inequality is not in itself an indicator of a large amount of poverty, since a few very rich individuals at the top end of the distribution can co-exist with individuals at the bottom end of the scale who have the resources to lead a way of life which is much more restricted, but not necessarily deprived in the sense described by Townsend. The difference between material poverty and material inequality does not arise so much from a difference in empirically demonstrable phenomena, but from the angle from which the issue is viewed: inequality focuses on distribution, whereas (relative) poverty is defined against a standard of behaviour (such as the tea drinking example offered by Townsend, see footnote 5 ). The latter of course partly depends on the distribution of resources—what is considered a normal standard of behaviour is linked to whether people have the resources to enable them to act on this standard—but it can be expected to be more stable since temporary changes in circumstances would not immediately alter such a behavioural standard. Turning to education, Lohmann and Ferger ( 2014 ) argue that the difference in focus between inequality and poverty is that “research on educational inequalities […] is primarily concerned with inequalities of opportunity”, while “research on educational poverty focuses on inequalities of condition” (p. 1).

Finally, in the context of a discussion of the relative position of individuals, whether regarding their material or immaterial resources such as educational certificates, it is important to acknowledge existing work in this area, especially that by Fred Hirsch ( 1976 ) on positional goods and Ronald Dore ( 1976 ) on qualifications inflation. Hirsch analyses the way in which the value of certain material as well as immaterial goods depends at least partly on how many other people have access (or not) to the same goods. An example is driving a car: if just one person drives their car, they will get to their destination more quickly than if they used slower means of transport, but if everybody drives, there will be congestion, slowing everybody down. Hirsch also discusses education, where the value of credentials partly depends on the number of people holding the same credentials, given the use of credentials as a screening device. Dore’s entire focus is on educational credentials. He demonstrates and discusses, amongst other things, how a surplus of individuals with a certain level of qualification against a background of a shortage of jobs at the relevant level can change the educational requirements for jobs: even if the demands of the job itself do not change, an employer may well demand higher levels of qualifications from applicants simply to be able to select candidates from a large pool of applicants. Clearly, this analysis matters for the exploration of educational poverty: what Dore describes can happen at any level, including that of the least qualified individuals who may see their employment opportunities diminish with rising qualifications among their competitors. Thus, they are being rendered (relatively) educationally poor without a change in their own qualifications.

2.2 Empirical issues

2.2.1 data: national educational panel study (neps).

Since I am going to illustrate some of the conceptual points made in the previous section by drawing on empirical examples, I first describe briefly the data I employ throughout the paper. The data come from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS): Starting Cohort Adults, https://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC6:11.0.0 . From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network (see also Blossfeld and Roßbach 2019 ). Its aim is to collect longitudinal data on all aspects of education in formal and informal contexts, covering certificates as well as competences, and enabling researchers to investigate causes and consequences of educational outcomes. Data are collected in six cohorts, covering respondents at birth, at the start of nursery, in school years 5 and 9, at the start of university, and as adults. General data collection started in 2011, with new waves added every 1 or 2 years. For the adult cohort, on which the present paper draws, data collection actually started as early as 2007, and the data include, amongst other things, retrospective information on educational experiences and data on parents’ educational and occupational statuses. The present paper uses data on respondents with no missing data on respondent’s education, joint parental education and joint parental class, n  = 15,413. Footnote 7

2.2.2 The relationship between cognitive ability and educational certificates

Up to now, the discussion of educational poverty has centred on poverty of certificates, since certificates are what employers usually draw on in selecting employees. Given that a large part of the effects of educational poverty is mediated by labour market experiences, this is clearly an important aspect of educational poverty. It is also relatively easy to measure. However, attention should also be paid to cognitive ability and competences, since it seems plausible that they can affect the same outcomes, i.e. labour market opportunities, health, and family. Indeed, a number of researchers discuss both poverty of certificates and poverty of competences in their work on educational poverty (e.g., Blossfeld et al. 2019 ; Lohmann and Ferger 2014 ; Quenzel and Hurrelmann 2019b ; Solga 2011 ). The NEPS data contain a good range of competence measures; however, the difficulty is that these were obtained in adulthood, well after educational certificates were obtained (or not). But competences affect which certificates are obtained, rather than the other way round which makes the adult cohort NEPS data Footnote 8 unsuitable for investigating this relationship. In principle, it is possible to analyse the role of poverty of competences for, say, labour market outcomes, but given that such outcomes are likely to be at least equally strongly affected by certificates, this makes the analysis of the role of competences difficult in practice because the two measures are so closely intertwined. In addition, some attention will need to be paid to the mechanism by which competences can have effects on people’s experiences: in the labour market, a prospective employer does not usually have access to someone’s performance on a cognitive or competence test, so they rely on certificates as a proxy for competence.

2.2.3 Measurement

The problem described in the previous paragraph is one where, in principle, it is possible to collect the data necessary to address it. In what follows, the nature of the problem lies in the nature of the measure rather than the process of data collection: educational poverty, understood as a shortage of qualifications so severe that it restricts societal participation, cannot be measured in the same way as material poverty. The main basis for measuring material poverty is income or resources in the form of money, with non-monetary resources such as benefits in kind sometimes taken into consideration. Money is easily measured on an interval scale. Level of education, Footnote 9 by contrast, is frequently indicated either by years of education or by highest qualification obtained. The former is not necessarily very helpful especially in systems with a high degree of educational stratification, since the type of qualification achieved is more meaningful than the time taken to achieve it. If anything, taking a greater number of years to achieve a certain qualification may actually be interpreted negatively compared with someone who takes a shorter period of time to achieve the same formal level, so using years of education as an indicator of educational achievement would be counterproductive. But even in systems with a low degree of stratification, years of education is highly correlated with level of education, thus not adding much extra information. At first glance, years of education appear to be measurable on an interval scale, but the range is very restricted, the distribution uneven, and the meaning of one additional year of education is not the same at each point of the scale. Table 1 and Fig.  1 illustrate the differences between income and years of education, two measures used to indicate material and educational poverty respectively, using NEPS data. It can be seen that, indeed, while using an interval scale appears appropriate for measuring income, years of education has only seven values and a concentration of the majority of cases in just two of them, 12 and 13. It also has a far smaller range than the income scale.

Graphical display of income and years of education

Highest qualification obtained, by contrast, is measured on an ordinal scale. It has the advantage of being relatively straightforward to measure and to interpret, at least by people familiar with the relevant educational system, but a mean cannot be calculated in a meaningful way (though mode and median are viable alternative measures of central tendency). Instead, simple frequencies and percentages of individuals in the different ordered categories form the key measures of interest, as in Table 2 .

The German qualifications are listed in Table 2 in ascending order of status. Hauptschule is the most basic form of school in the German tripartite system, offering a qualification which allows the recipient to enter vocational training for mostly manual trades. Mittlere Reife is the qualification offered by the intermediate school type of Realschule, suitable for most forms of vocational training. Footnote 10

These different forms and levels of measurement have implications for the operationalisation of concepts of interest, as I discuss in the next section.

2.2.4 Operationalisation

With respect to relative material poverty, there appear to be two—related and not entirely distinct—ways of operationalising the concept. One is fairly widespread. It relies on income distribution and defines a poverty line which is some percentage (50 or 60 percent) of the median income. Anyone below this line is considered poor. The other way relies on substantive criteria which describe the situation of someone living in relative poverty. Townsend describes in some detail relevant considerations in deciding upon a standard which separates (relatively) materially poor from (relatively) non-poor individuals, and it becomes clear that, while he does discuss income-based definitions, income alone cannot form the basis of a definition of material poverty. Instead, societal norms define obligations people are expected to meet. There is no single criterion which determines poverty status, instead, there is a “pattern of non-observance [of social customs which] may be conditioned by severe lack of resources” (p. 57). Thus, operationalising poverty solely based on income distribution is potentially misleading because it may not capture actual differences in the experience of living conditions. Using a poverty line based on the median income to determine whether or not someone is experiencing poverty has the effect of their being designated poor (or not) with rising and falling average incomes, even if neither their own incomes change nor, more importantly, their situation in terms of what they can afford or whether they can participate in normal societal activities (see also footnote 3) (for the problems associated with using a single dimension to create an indicator of a complex concept such as poverty, see also Berg-Schlosser 2018 ). The advantage, however, of an income-based poverty line is that it is fairly straightforward to measure and, despite the reservations noted here, it is likely to capture fairly accurately the situation experienced by poor people in the sense that normal participation in socially expected and accepted activities is likely to be difficult if not impossible given an income below the poverty line. In addition, what are socially expected and accepted activities will at least partly depend on what most people are able to afford, thus income distribution is relevant in that respect. However, as an alternative to a solely distribution-based measure, it is possible to construct a list of goods and activities, along with their cost, which together constitute a range of “normal” societal activities. Their combined cost would constitute a criterion-based poverty line, in other words, a threshold below which an individual or household would be considered relatively poor.

What are the implications for the operationalisation of educational poverty? Absolute educational poverty seems impossible to operationalise given that education always has its effects in social and historical context. Allmendinger ( 1999 ) suggests that everyone having less education (indicated through certificates) than the population average might be defined as educationally (relatively) poor, and this, according to her, would suggest that all those in the lowest quartile or quintile of the distribution would fulfil this criterion. However, using such a distribution-based measure would ignore substantive criteria such as those suggested above in relation to material poverty. In addition, Table 2 shows that the distribution of certificates can be very uneven, making it difficult to define “the average of the population” or a clear cut-off point. Footnote 11 It would seem more appropriate to consider substantive criteria in defining educational poverty, taking account of what certificates are needed to participate in normal social activities, including the labour market which is likely to be the sphere of life in which education has the greatest impact.

The method used for the analysis shown below is Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in its multi-value (mvQCA) variant. I do not have space here to fully explain this method, but the references given in this section should be helpful to readers unfamiliar with it. The interpretation of the findings as I present them will also help the reader understand the method.

Briefly, then, QCA was developed by Charles Ragin (Ragin 1987 , 2000 , 2008 , see also, e.g., Rihoux and Ragin 2009 ; Rihoux 2020 ). Based on set theory and Boolean algebra, it offers a way of systematically analysing conjunctions of factors as potential necessary and sufficient conditions for an outcome. Data are arranged in a truth table which shows all the possible combinations of values on the conditions under study and their relationship with the outcome. This truth table forms the basis for Boolean minimisation which is a way of logically summarising all the possible combinations of factors leading to the outcome. Ragin developed crisp and fuzzy variants of QCA, with the former employing dichotomous variables indicating full membership or non-membership in a set, and the latter allowing partial membership of a set. Lasse Cronqvist introduced another QCA variant: in multi-value QCA (mvQCA) crisp sets with more than two categories may be used (Cronqvist 2003 ; Cronqvist and Berg-Schlosser 2009 ). Originally developed for the use with small to medium n, QCA has since been usefully employed with large n (e.g., Cooper 2005 ; Glaesser and Cooper 2011 ; Greckhamer et al. 2013 ; Ragin 2006 ; Ragin and Fiss 2017 ). QCA’s strengths are that it enables the researcher to analyse systematically complex connections amongst factors, allowing for multiple pathways to the outcome and investigating the effects of combinations of factors. I use the mvQCA variant in this paper because it is the most suitable for the type of data I analyse: since some of my factors have more than two categories, crisp set QCA would not be suitable (it is possible to employ dummies, but this makes the analyses clumsy and the findings harder to interpret). In order to use fsQCA, on the other hand, I would have had to decide how to calibrate the school qualification measure. Any decision taken in calibration affects the results, whereas the categories used in the mvQCA have substantive meanings which are straightforwardly interpretable. The analysis was performed using the R package QCApro (Thiem 2018 ). Footnote 12

4 Relative educational poverty: some empirical findings

Clearly, it is important to consider the relative nature of the value of educational certificates despite the challenges associated with operationalising relative educational poverty discussed above. As we have seen, this value changes over time: on the one hand, technological change leads to a change in the structure of the labour market in modern societies, so that there will be a demand for more highly skilled workers, on the other hand, educational expansion has produced an oversupply of candidates with high formal qualifications, a development which leads to lowly qualified candidates being rejected for jobs which previously had been carried out perfectly competently by workers with this level of qualification (Dore 1976 ). Taken together, these two developments lead to a devaluing of basic qualifications in the labour market.

4.1 Descriptive results

Qualifications inflation is evident in the NEPS data when considering changes over eight cohorts, ranging from those born between 1944 and 1950 to those born between 1981 and 1989: Hauptschulabschluss (HS) with vocational qualification was the most common qualification in the earlier cohorts. The proportion of respondents with this qualification then fell from 38% (1944–1950) to 8.3% (1981–1989). The combination Abitur (i.e., the Higher Education entrance qualification) with vocational qualification went from fairly uncommon (6.9% for the 1944–1950 cohort) to one held by a fifth of respondents (20.0% for the 1981–1989 cohort). Finally, having a university degree went from a qualification held by 15.1% of the 1944–1950 cohort to being the second most common one at 21.3% (only surpassed by Mittlere Reife with vocational qualification at 23.9%) for the 1981–1989 cohort. Over time, the proportions of respondents with Hauptschulabschluss who have remained without vocational qualification have increased, from 9.9% in the oldest cohort to 29.2% in the youngest. Figure  2 summarises some of these developments, and it is worth noting that what has sometimes been defined as absolute educational poverty—the absence of any qualification—has remained fairly constant over time. This is represented by the dotted line in Fig.  2 .

Changes over time in highest qualifications achieved

The two developments taken together—the seemingly greater risk for Hauptschulabschluss holders of remaining without a vocational qualification and the increasing number of Abitur holders who obtain vocational qualifications—may largely reflect changes in the composition of these groups. Presumably, Hauptschulabschluss is increasingly only obtained by individuals who struggle in some way—whether academically or in life more generally—so that they are unable or unwilling to gain a vocational qualification. Employers who can offer apprenticeships are more likely to offer their places to Mittlere Reife or Abitur holders given that there are enough candidates with these higher levels of qualifications. This may be because they use qualification as a simple screening device when faced with a large number of applicants, and/or because they fear that the group of Hauptschulabschluss holders is indeed negatively selected for academic ability and/or motivation (see Solga 2011 , p.430, who also discusses such developments).

These descriptive findings suggest that it would be interesting to analyse the joint contributions of various factors to educational status, investigating how this has changed over time. Employing mvQCA, I will make use of the idea of the relative nature of the value of educational certificates as described at the beginning of this section in analysing the outcome of “post-school qualification”. This refers to attaining a qualification recognised in the labour market (i.e., either a vocational qualification or a degree). With its tightly regulated labour market, it is fairly difficult in Germany to obtain stable employment without such a qualification which makes this an important outcome. Post-school qualification (“POST.SCHOOL”) is coded 1 = “has vocational qualification or degree”, 0 = “has no post-school qualification”.

4.2 mvQCA results

As I explained in the Introduction, I used three factors as the conditions in the mvQCA analysis. Given that a focus on context and interactions is a core principle of QCA (which is the reason I chose it as my method of analysis), it would not make sense to state hypotheses concerning the likely effects of individual conditions. Instead, I comment briefly on how they might be expected jointly to be linked to the outcome: This paper’s key focus is on relative educational poverty. Accordingly, one of the three conditions is cohort, since I expect the role of education—more specifically, of the lowest qualification, Hauptschule—to change over time, with Hauptschule possibly being sufficient for reaching some post-school qualification for the older cohort, but not the younger. At the same time, it is plausible that male sex will be part of a configuration which is sufficient for obtaining a post-school qualification for the older cohort, but that it loses its relevance for the younger cohort. As for necessity, I do not expect any of the three conditions to be individually necessary for the outcome given that it has been fairly common in all age groups across a variety of subgroups, though it is plausible that a disjunction of several factors will be.

Sex (“MALE”) is coded 1 = “male” and 0 = “female”, Footnote 13 school qualification (“SCHOOL.QUAL”) is coded 0 = “no qualification”, 1 = “Hauptschule”, 2 = “Mittlere Reife”, 3 = “Abitur”, and cohort (“COHORT”) is coded 0 = “born 1944–1965” and 1 = “born 1966–1989”. Table 3 is the truth table, showing the 16 possible combinations of these three factors. The column headed “outcome POST.SCHOOL” indicates whether or not the respective row has reached the threshold for consistency with sufficiency. Footnote 14 This threshold is set by the researcher, depending on how close to perfect sufficiency a relationship is desired. It can be informative to explore more than one threshold in order to get a sense of the interplay of factors (an approach used, for example, by Cooper 2005 ), taking account of jumps in consistency. In Table 3 , there is a gap between configurations 0 2 0 (consistency 0.917) and 1 1 1 (consistency 0.849), and again between configurations 0 1 0 (consistency 0.848) and 0 1 1 (consistency 0.745), suggesting that 0.9 and 0.8 are useful places to set thresholds. These are reflected in the entries 1/0 in the column headed “outcome”.

The column headed “ n ” gives the number of cases with the combination described in this truth table row. The final column headed “consistency” gives the consistency with sufficiency for each row. In the case of crisp and mvQCA, this figure is simply the proportion of cases in the row with the outcome. So, for example, the first row contains the 1276 cases who are male, have a Mittlere Reife qualification as their highest school qualification and who belong to the older cohort. 96.3 percent of them obtained a post-school qualification. Given that the truth table is ordered in descending order of consistency, the rows with the highest proportion of cases obtaining a post-school qualification are found nearer the top of the table.

There are some interesting insights to be gained merely from studying the truth table. We can see that it is fairly common to obtain a post-school qualification: in most groups, over 90 percent achieve this. Respondents whose highest qualification is a Hauptschulabschluss are the exception: the only row containing Hauptschule leavers with a consistency above 0.9 is the combination 1 1 0, i.e. men from the older cohort. They obtain post-school qualifications in similar proportions to cases with higher school qualifications. Footnote 15

The truth table can now be used to generate two Boolean solutions in a process of minimisation to obtain (quasi-)necessary and (quasi-)sufficient combinations of conditions for achieving the outcome. In the first, employing a threshold of 0.9 for consistency with sufficiency, no quasi-necessary combination of conditions was found (as indicated by the single-headed arrow). The combination of Mittlere Reife OR Abitur OR [male AND Hauptschulabschluss AND older cohort] was quasi-sufficient for obtaining a post-school qualification. In other words, there are three routes to the outcome at this consistency level: (1) Abitur, (2) Mittlere Reife, (3) Hauptschulabschluss combined with being male and a member of the older cohort. The second solution, employing a threshold of 0.8, shows a combination of conditions which are jointly (quasi-)necessary and (quasi-) sufficient for the outcome, as indicated by the double-headed arrow. They are Mittlere Reife OR Abitur OR [male AND Hauptschulabschluss] OR [Hauptschulabschluss AND older cohort]. The figures given below, on a scale of zero to one, provide information on the consistency with sufficiency for every combination of conditions (the column headed “incl”) and raw and unique coverage (in the columns headed cov.r and cov.u, respectively). The coverage figures indicate the empirical relevance of each combination of conditions, with unique coverage calculated Footnote 16 for cases who only have the conditions specified by the particular path, and raw coverage for those on the path who also have conditions specified by other paths.

4.3 Solutions

Threshold of 0.9 consistency with quasi-sufficiency.

SCHOOL.QUAL{2} + SCHOOL.QUAL{3} + MALE{1}*SCHOOL.QUAL{1}*COHORT{0} =  > POST.SCHOOL

Threshold of 0.8 consistency with quasi-sufficiency

SCHOOL.QUAL{2} + SCHOOL.QUAL{3} + MALE{1}*SCHOOL.QUAL{1} + SCHOOL.QUAL{1}*COHORT{0}<=> POST.SCHOOL

The analyses show the relevance of context: not surprisingly, Mittlere Reife and Abitur are both (quasi-)sufficient conditions on their own for gaining a post-school qualification regardless of cohort, but Hauptschulabschluss, the most basic form of school qualification, was not sufficient for most cases, only for men from the older cohort. This latter group corresponds to the fifth truth table row. When a slightly less stringent threshold for sufficiency is chosen, then only one of the two factors, sex and cohort, had to be combined with Hauptschulabschluss, but it still was not sufficient on its own.

5 Discussion

Poverty can be employed as an emotive term to stress the seriousness of an individual’s situation. Such a usage would seem to be more appropriate for political campaigners rather than for researchers striving for neutrality and objectivity. In addition, describing someone as poor may lead to their being stigmatised and written off. Having said that, the conceptual discussion in this paper has shown that, despite key differences with material poverty, the concept of poverty is useful in describing a situation where someone is excluded from participation in what is considered normal in the society in which they live. Understood in this way, it makes sense to talk about educational poverty as a lack of formal qualifications which severely restricts participation in a number of areas of social life as defined in the Introduction, a definition I drew upon throughout this paper.

What has also become clear from the conceptual discussion is that educational poverty, like material poverty, ought to be understood as a relative concept. While the distinction between absolute and relative poverty has been made by a number of scholars (e.g., Allmendinger 1999 ; Blossfeld et al. 2019 ; Sen 1983 ), in practice they still describe even absolute poverty by referring to the context in which it is experienced. Clearly, then, it is important that in analysing educational poverty, we do not lose sight of its relative nature. A particular level of education may have been perfectly adequate during an earlier period, only for the same level to represent educational poverty in an age in which more and more people acquire ever higher levels of formal education. Equally clearly, different groups can be affected differentially at different times and in different societies, so that what constitutes educational poverty for one may not have the same implications for another.

Empirically, the shifts in educational qualifications analysed descriptively in Sect.  4.1 already show that distribution matters: a Hauptschule qualification followed by a vocational qualification has gone from being the most commonly held type of qualification to being fairly unusual over the course of the observation period. Quenzel and Hurrelmann ( 2019b ) describe clearly how this development is associated with the job opportunities of people whose highest school qualification is a Hauptschulabschluss, noting that the composition of this group has become more homogeneous over the years, with most of them coming from educationally deprived households. Apart from the implications for their educational opportunities, this also means that they have fewer informal networks to draw on to help them in their job search. At the same time, employers use school qualification as a screening device, assuming—rightly or wrongly—that an individual from such a negatively selected group is less likely to fulfil their requirements compared to someone from the much larger pool of individuals with higher levels of qualification. The QCA analysis (Sect.  4.2 ) confirms empirically the importance of a relative conceptualisation of educational poverty: since gaining a post-school qualification will greatly ease the transition into the labour market, it is one of the outcomes which ought to be considered in analysing potential effects of educational poverty. As I was able to show, the value of Hauptschulabschluss has not remained the same: it was a (quasi-) sufficient condition (at the 0.9 level) for obtaining the outcome of a post-school qualification only for a certain group—men—and during a certain period of time—that in which respondents born before 1966 completed their schooling. This means that, for women born at any point in time and for both men and women born after 1965, having Hauptschulabschluss as their highest level of school qualification can be considered to be a marker of educational poverty, but not for men born before 1966. This suggests that, as might be expected given what we know about education as a positional good (Hirsch 1976 , see Sect.  2.1 ) and qualifications inflation (Dore 1976 , see Sect.  2.1 ), the value of Hauptschulabschluss decreased over time because of the general increase in levels of school qualifications. As for the difference between men and women, this may be linked to the increase in women’s labour market participation: for women born earlier, given the expectation that they would raise a family, it is possible that they did not see the need to attempt to obtain a post-school qualification if they could expect this to be difficult given their low level of school qualification.

While it was useful to draw on theoretical work undertaken in the field of material poverty in conceptualising educational poverty, it seems likely that the relevance is limited when it comes to policy implications. The means of tackling poverty are likely to differ between the two fields (even though the two types of poverty may well share some causes). For example, I noted above that material poverty can in principle be alleviated by transferring money to the individuals affected, but this is not the case straightforwardly for educational poverty. While it is possible to create opportunities for gaining qualifications at any stage in an individual’s life, this alone does not mean that they will be taken up.

With this paper, I have intended to contribute to the existing work on educational poverty and thus to encourage further empirical research drawing on this concept. Any such research ought to take account of the relative nature of educational poverty, as I have demonstrated.

Availability of data and material

Data were supplied by the LIfBi.

Inequality in education and educational poverty are clearly related, however. Similarly, inequality in resources is related to material poverty but distinct from it (Sen 1983 ; Solga 2011 ; Townsend 1979 ). I will discuss these issues in Sect.  2.1 .

I refer to formal qualifications because they are the main focus in this paper. Similar arguments would apply to competences not measured by certificates.

In addition to such substantive changes in circumstances, an individual’s official poverty status varies with the setting of the poverty line, so that even without a change in circumstances, someone may be defined as being poor when previously they were not, and vice versa. But this is an artefact arising from decisions which may be politically motivated and which do not necessarily mirror closely the experience of the individuals concerned.

A sudden loss of the value of qualifications can, of course, occur following emigration to a country where one’s qualifications are not recognised, or, for qualifications obtained in the UK, as a result of Brexit and the accompanying loss of EU-wide automatic recognition of professional qualifications obtained in other member states.

Townsend gives a simple example in discussing tea: “Tea is nutritionally worthless, but in some countries is generally accepted as a ‘necessity of life’. For many people in these countries drinking tea has been a life-long custom and is psychologically essential. And the fact that friends and neighbours expect to be offered a cup of tea (or the equivalent) when they visit helps to make it socially necessary as well: a small contribution is made towards maintaining the threads of social relationships.” (p. 50).

Referring to this dependence of the definition on the country under study might of course be seen as describing relative rather than absolute poverty.

This paper is part of a larger project with a common dataset. Unlike those in the present paper, some of the other analyses draw on parents’ status which is why cases with missing data on these measures were excluded. However, the analyses presented in this paper were repeated with a slightly larger dataset ( n  = 17,107) which only excluded cases if data were missing on respondents’ education, and the results were essentially the same.

It will be interesting to analyse this relationship using the NEPS adolescents and students data once they have been collected for long enough for most respondents to have potentially reached the outcomes of interest.

Clearly, this does not apply to competences which can—appropriate tests permitting—easily be measured on an interval scale.

This brief description is a simplification of the German system with its 16 federal states, all of which have their own educational systems, though with common elements across all 16 states.

Using years of education instead of certificates would lead to similar problems for much the same reasons, as discussed in the previous section.

Nothing hinges on the choice of software package since I have no reason to expect different findings were I to use an alternative package, given the structure of my data.

No ordering is implied by the choice of the 1 and 0 labels, these are merely following convention.

Strictly speaking, quasi -sufficiency is being assessed, since we will not often, in large n studies, find a relation of perfect sufficiency. What Ragin’s use of quasi -sufficiency captures is something like: the combination of conditions is sufficient to raise the proportion gaining the outcome above the chosen threshold. Quasi-sufficiency therefore can be used to assess how closely the truth table data reflect perfect sufficiency.

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The figure basically gives the proportion of cases with the outcome that are accounted for by this path.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Barry Cooper for his extremely helpful thoughts and comments on this paper. I also thank the LIfBi for providing the NEPS dataset.

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Glaesser, J. Relative educational poverty: conceptual and empirical issues. Qual Quant 56 , 2803–2820 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01226-3

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Discrimination Experiences Shape Most Asian Americans’ Lives

Stereotypes of asians in the u.s. as foreigners and a model minority drive discrimination, table of contents.

• Key findings from the survey
• Most Asian Americans have been treated as foreigners in some way, no matter where they were born
• Most Asian Americans have been subjected to ‘model minority’ stereotypes, but many haven’t heard of the term
• Experiences with other daily and race-based discrimination incidents
• In their own words: Key findings from qualitative research on Asian Americans and discrimination experiences
• Discrimination in interpersonal encounters with strangers
• Racial discrimination at security checkpoints
• Encounters with police because of race or ethnicity
• Racial discrimination in the workplace
• Quality of service in restaurants and stores
• Discrimination in neighborhoods
• Experiences with name mispronunciation
• Discrimination experiences of being treated as foreigners
• In their own words: How Asian Americans would react if their friend was told to ‘go back to their home country’
• Awareness of the term ‘model minority’
• Views of the term ‘model minority’
• How knowledge of Asian American history impacts awareness and views of the ‘model minority’ label
• Most Asian Americans have experienced ‘model minority’ stereotypes
• In their own words: Asian Americans’ experiences with the ‘model minority’ stereotype
• Asian adults who personally know an Asian person who has been threatened or attacked since COVID-19
• In their own words: Asian Americans’ experiences with discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Experiences with talking about racial discrimination while growing up
• Is enough attention being paid to anti-Asian racism in the U.S.?
• Acknowledgments
• Sample design
• Data collection
• Weighting and variance estimation
• Methodology: 2021 focus groups of Asian Americans
• Appendix: Supplemental tables

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand Asian Americans’ experiences with discrimination in the United States and their views of anti-Asian racism in the country. This report is the latest in the Center’s in-depth analysis of public opinion among Asian Americans .

The data in this report comes from two main sources. The first is a nationally representative survey of 7,006 Asian adults exploring the experiences, attitudes and views of Asians living in the U.S. on several topics, including discrimination and racism in America, identity , affirmative action , global affairs , policy priorities and religious identities . The survey sampled U.S. adults who self-identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic ethnicity. It was offered in six languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Responses were collected from July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023, by Westat on behalf of Pew Research Center.

The Center recruited a large sample to examine the diversity of the U.S. Asian population, with oversamples of the Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese populations. These are the five largest origin groups among Asian Americans. The survey also includes a large enough sample of self-identified Japanese adults, making findings about them reportable. In this report, the six largest ethnic groups include those who identify with one Asian ethnicity only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. Together, these six groups constitute 81% of all U.S. Asian adults, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey (ACS), and are the six groups whose attitudes and opinions are highlighted throughout the report.

Survey respondents were drawn from a national sample of residential mailing addresses, which included addresses from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Specialized surname list frames maintained by the Marketing Systems Group were used to supplement the sample. Those eligible to complete the survey were offered the opportunity to do so online or by mail with a paper questionnaire. For more details, refer to the survey methodology . For questions used in this analysis, refer to the topline questionnaire .

Findings for less populous Asian origin groups in the U.S., those who are not among the six largest Asian origin groups, are grouped under the category “other” and are included in the overall Asian adult findings in the report. These ethnic origin groups each make up about 2% or less of the Asian population in the U.S., making it challenging to recruit nationally representative samples for each origin group. The group “other” includes those who identify with one Asian ethnicity only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or Hispanic ethnicity. Findings for those who identify with two or more Asian ethnicities are not presented by themselves in this report but are included in the overall Asian adult findings.

The second data source for this report is focus groups . Survey results are complemented by findings from 66 pre-survey focus groups of Asian adults , conducted from Aug. 4 to Oct. 14, 2021, with 264 recruited participants from 18 Asian origin groups. Focus group discussions were conducted in 18 different languages and moderated by members of their origin groups. In the focus groups, participants discussed their experiences with discrimination in the United States, and some quotations are used in this report. Quotations are not necessarily representative of the majority opinion in any particular group living in the U.S. or of Asian Americans overall. Quotations may have been edited for grammar, spelling and clarity.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. The Center’s Asian American portfolio was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from The Asian American Foundation; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Henry Luce Foundation; the Doris Duke Foundation; The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation; The Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation; The Long Family Foundation; Lu-Hebert Fund; Gee Family Foundation; Joseph Cotchett; the Julian Abdey and Sabrina Moyle Charitable Fund; and Nanci Nishimura.

We would also like to thank the Leaders Forum for its thought leadership and valuable assistance in helping make this survey possible.

The strategic communications campaign used to promote the research was made possible with generous support from the Doris Duke Foundation.

The terms Asians, Asians living in the United States, U.S. Asian population and Asian Americans are used interchangeably throughout this report to refer to U.S. adults who self-identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic identity.

Ethnicity and ethnic origin labels, such as Chinese and Chinese origin, are used interchangeably in this report for findings for ethnic origin groups, such as Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese. For this report, ethnicity is not nationality. For example, Chinese in this report are those self-identifying as of Chinese ethnicity, rather than necessarily being a current or former citizen of the People’s Republic of China. Ethnic origin groups in this report include those who identify as one Asian ethnicity only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. Responses for Asian adults who identify with two or more Asian ethnic origin groups are included in the total but not shown separately.

Less populous Asian origin groups in this report are those who self-identify with ethnic origin groups that are not among the six largest Asian ones. They are grouped under the category “other” when displayed in charts. The term includes those who identify with only one Asian ethnicity, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. These ethnic origin groups each represent about 2% or less of the overall Asian population in the U.S. For example, those who identify as Burmese, Hmong or Pakistani are included in this category. Survey findings from these groups are unreportable on their own due to small sample sizes, but collectively they are reportable under this category.

Region and regional origin labels, such as East Asian and East Asian origin, are used interchangeably in this report for findings for regional origin groups, such as East Asian (which includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean or other East Asian origins), South Asian (which includes Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, Pakistani or other South Asian origins) or Southeast Asian (which includes Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Vietnamese or other Southeast Asian origins) adults. Regional Asian origin groups in this report include those who self-identify with an Asian ethnic origin group or multiple Asian ethnic origin groups that belong to one Asian region only. Responses for Asian adults who identify with ethnic origin groups that belong to two or more Asian regions are included in the total but not shown separately.

Immigrants in this report are people who were born outside the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories. Immigrant, foreign born and born abroad are used interchangeably to refer to this group.  

Naturalized citizens are immigrants who are lawful permanent residents who have fulfilled the length of stay and other requirements to become U.S. citizens and who have taken the oath of citizenship.

U.S. born refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

Among immigrants, there are two distinct immigrant generation groups in this report:

• First generation refers to people who were born outside the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories and immigrated to the U.S. when they were 18 or older . Throughout the report, the term first generation and the phrase immigrants who came to the U.S. as adults are used interchangeably.
• 1.5 generation refers to people who were born outside the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories and immigrated to the U.S. when they were younger than 18 years old . Throughout the report, the term 1.5 generation and the phrase immigrants who came to the U.S. as children are used interchangeably.

Among U.S. born, there are two distinct immigrant generation groups in this report:

• Second generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories with at least one foreign-born (immigrant) parent. Throughout the report, the term second generation and the phrase U.S.-born children of immigrant parents are used interchangeably.
• Third or higher generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories with both parents born in the 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

Primary language is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. People who are origin language dominant are more proficient in the Asian origin language of their family or ancestors than in English (i.e., they speak and read their Asian origin language “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their ability to speak and read English lower). Bilingual refers to those who are proficient in both English and their Asian origin language. People who are English dominant are more proficient in English than in their Asian origin language.

Throughout this report, Democrats refers to respondents who identify politically with the Democratic Party or those who are independent or identify with some other party but lean toward the Democratic Party. Similarly, Republicans includes both those who identify politically with the Republican Party and those who are independent or identify with some other party but lean toward the Republican Party.

In this report, Asian adults who are single race include those who self-identify as Asian and no other non-Asian race or origin. Asian adults who are two or more races include those who self-identify as Asian and at least one other non-Asian race or origin (such as White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or some other non-Asian race or origin). Racial identity groups were constructed regardless of Hispanic self-identity.

The spike in incidents of anti-Asian discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked national conversations about race and racial discrimination concerning Asian Americans. 1 But discrimination against Asian Americans is not new. 2 From the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, to denial of the right to become naturalized U.S. citizens until the 1940s, to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to backlash against Muslims, Sikhs and South Asians after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, most Asian Americans have faced discrimination and exclusion while being treated as foreigners throughout their long history in the United States.

At the same time, Asian Americans have often been upheld as a model for how other racial and ethnic minorities should behave – especially in comparison with Black Americans and Latinos. 3 Despite the socioeconomic diversity among U.S. Asians, they are commonly portrayed as educationally and economically successful, hardworking, deferential to authority, unemotional and lacking in creativity. 4 This “model minority” stereotype has placed Asian Americans at the center of debates about meritocracy , selective admissions to elite institutions and affirmative action .

Today, 57% of Asian adults see discrimination against Asians living in the U.S. as a major problem. And 63% say too little attention is paid to race and racial issues concerning Asian Americans, according to a new analysis of a multilingual, nationally representative survey of 7,006 Asian adults conducted from July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023.

For many Asian Americans, discrimination experiences are not just single events, but instead come in several often-overlapping forms. Overall, the survey showed that most Asian Americans experience discrimination in three broad ways: Those related to being treated as a foreigner (even if they were born in the U.S.); being seen as a model minority; and other discrimination incidents in day-to-day encounters or because of their race or ethnicity.

Jump to chapters on …

• Asian Americans’ experiences with discrimination in their daily lives
• Asian Americans and the “forever foreigner” stereotype
• Asian Americans and the “model minority” stereotype
• Asian Americans and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Asian Americans’ views of anti-Asian discrimination in the U.S. today
• 78% of Asian adults have been treated as a foreigner in some way, even if they are U.S. born. This includes Asian adults who say that in day-to-day encounters with strangers in the U.S., someone has told them to go back to their home country, acted like they can’t speak English, criticized them for speaking a language other than English in public, or mispronounced their name. 5
• 63% of Asian adults have experienced incidents where people assume they are a model minority. This includes Asian Americans who say that in day-to-day encounters with strangers in the U.S., people have assumed that they are good at math and science or that they are not creative thinkers.
• 35% of South Asian adults say they have been held back at a security checkpoint for a secondary screening because of their race or ethnicity. This is higher than the shares among Southeast (15%) and East (14%) Asian adults. 6 Additionally, Asian American Muslims are more likely than some other major religious groups to say this has happened to them.
• 32% of Asian adults say they know another Asian person in the U.S. who has been threatened or attacked because of their race or ethnicity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic . Across regional origin groups, about one-third of East (36%) and Southeast (33%) Asian adults say they know someone with this experience, as do 24% of South Asian adults.
• In many cases, Asian adults who grew up in the U.S. are more likely than those who immigrated as adults to say they have experienced discrimination incidents. For example, about half or more of U.S.-born Asian adults and immigrants who came to the U.S. as children (1.5 generation) say they have been called offensive names in daily interactions with strangers, compared with 20% of those who immigrated as adults (first generation). 7 This could be for a number of reasons, including recognizing discrimination more than other Asian adults, having more non-Asian friends, or being racialized in America during adolescence. 8
• 68% of Asian adults who grew up in the U.S. say they rarely or never talked with family about the challenges they might face because of their race or ethnicity when growing up. 9 Meanwhile, 31% say their family sometimes or often discussed it.

In sum, the survey asked Asian Americans if they have personally experienced 17 specific discrimination incidents in day-to-day encounters or because of their race or ethnicity. It also asked more broadly if they have ever experienced racial discrimination.

• About nine-in-ten Asian Americans have personally experienced at least one of the 17 discrimination incidents asked about in the survey. Across these incidents, Asian Americans are most likely to say that strangers mispronounced their name (68%) or assumed that they are good at math and science (58%). And about half of Asian adults say they have experienced four incidents or more.
• 58% of Asian adults say they have ever experienced racial discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. This includes 53% who say they experience racial discrimination from time to time and 5% who say they experience it regularly.

Read the Appendix for the list of the 17 discrimination incidents asked about in the survey. This is not an exhaustive list of all possible discrimination experiences. Some Asian adults who said “no” to all of these may still have experienced some form of discrimination not captured by the survey.

Many Asian Americans face the experience of being treated as a foreigner, no matter their birthplace, citizenship status or strength of their ties to the U.S.

About equal shares of U.S.-born and immigrant Asian adults say they have had experiences in which they are treated as foreigners:

• 70% of immigrants and 62% of U.S.-born Asian adults say people have mispronounced their name.
• 41% of immigrants and 34% of U.S.-born adults say people have acted as if they don’t speak English.
• 31% of immigrants and 35% of U.S.-born adults say someone has told them to go back to their home country.
• And among those who can speak their Asian origin language, 22% of immigrants and 19% of U.S.-born adults say someone has criticized them for speaking a non-English language in public.

These experiences persist even among Asian adults whose families have lived in the U.S. for multiple generations .

• 37% of second-generation Asian adults (the U.S.-born children of immigrant parents) say someone has told them to go back to their home country, compared with 26% of first-generation Asian adults (those who immigrated to the U.S. as adults).

Whether or not immigrants are naturalized U.S. citizens , many still experience being treated as a foreigner. And in some cases, higher shares of citizens than noncitizens say these incidents have happened to them:

• 34% of Asian immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens say someone has told them to go back to their home country, compared with 26% of Asian immigrants who have not obtained citizenship. 

(Explore more about the “forever foreigner” stereotype and Asian Americans in Chapter 2 .)

Another experience many Asian Americans encounter is being stereotyped as a model minority, no matter their background. This stereotype often does not align with the lived experiences and socioeconomic backgrounds of many Asians in the U.S. Research on the model minority myth has also pointed to its negative impact on attitudes and expectations made of other racial and ethnic groups. 10

• Immigrant generation: About three-quarters each of 1.5- and second-generation Asian adults say they have had at least one experience in which people have assumed they are good at math and science or not a creative thinker. Smaller shares of first-generation (56%) and third- or higher-generation (55%) Asian adults say the same.
• Education: 72% of Asians with a postgraduate degree say they have been subjected to at least one of the model minority stereotypes, compared with 54% of those with a high school degree or less.
• Income: 73% of Asian adults with a family income of $150,000 or more say this has happened to them, compared with 51% of Asian adults with a family income of less than $30,000.

Asian Americans’ awareness of the term ‘model minority’

Despite most Asian Americans saying they have been subjected to stereotypes associated with the idea of being a model minority, fewer than half (44%) say they have heard of the term. The groups who have experienced model minority stereotypes are also more likely to say they are familiar with the term:

• Experiences of the stereotype: Overall, Asian adults who have experienced at least one model minority stereotype are more likely to be familiar with the label, compared with those who have not faced either of these experiences (51% vs. 32%).
• Immigrant generation: About six-in-ten Asian adults who are 1.5 generation (60%) and second generation (62%) say they have heard of the term. By comparison, 40% of third- or higher-generation and 32% of first-generation Asian adults say the same.
• Education: 53% of Asian Americans with a postgraduate degree know the term “model minority,” compared with 30% of those with a high school degree or less.
• Income: 54% of Asian adults who make $150,000 or more say they are familiar with the term, compared with 29% of those who make less than $30,000.
• Age: 56% of Asian adults younger than 30 have heard the term “model minority.” About 37% of those 65 and older say the same.

Asian Americans’ views of the ‘model minority’ label

Among Asian adults who have heard of the term “model minority,” 42% say describing Asians as a model minority is a bad thing, while 28% say it is neither a good nor bad thing, 17% say it is a good thing and 12% are not sure.

Views among Asian adults who have heard of the model minority label vary across some demographic groups:

• Immigrant generation: 62% of second-generation Asian adults say the model minority label is a bad thing. By comparison, 43% of 1.5-generation and 26% of first-generation Asian adults say the same.
• Age: 66% of Asian adults under 30 view the model minority label negatively, while 8% view it positively. On the other hand, 36% of Asian adults 65 and older say the label is a good thing, while 17% say it is a bad thing.
• Party: 52% of Asian adults who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party say describing Asians as a model minority is a bad thing, compared with 17% of Republicans and Republican leaners. Among Republicans, 31% say calling Asian Americans a model minority is a good thing, while only 12% of Democrats say the same.

(Explore more about the “model minority” stereotype and Asian Americans’ views of it in Chapter 3 .)

• 40% of Asian adults say they have received poorer service than other people at restaurants and stores. More than four-in-ten Asian adults who have a bachelor’s degree or more say they have had this experience, compared with about one-third with some college experience or less.
• 37% of Asian adults say in day-to-day encounters with strangers, they have been called offensive names. About six-in-ten U.S.-born Asian adults (57%) say this, compared with 30% of Asian immigrants.
• 11% of Asian adults say have been stopped, searched or questioned by the police because of their race or ethnicity. Responses differ by how others perceive their racial or ethnic identity. Asian adults who are perceived as non-Asian and non-White (which includes those who say they are perceived as “mixed race or multiracial” or “Arab or Middle Eastern,” among others) are more likely to say they have had this experience, compared with those who are perceived as Asian or Chinese. 11

In 2021, Pew Research Center conducted 66 focus groups of Asian Americans across 18 different Asian origin groups. In the focus groups, some participants shared their experiences with discrimination that elaborate on our survey findings.

• Many participants talked about their experiences being bullied, harassed or called slurs and other offensive names because of their race or ethnicity. (Read more about these experiences in Chapter 1 )
• Some participants – particularly those who are South Asian – talked about facing discriminatory backlash after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 . ( Chapter 1 )
• We also asked participants what they would do if their close friend was told that they don’t belong here and to go back to their “home country.” Participants offered a range of responses including offering emotional support, telling them to walk away, record and report the incident, and speak up or fight back. ( Chapter 2 )
• Participants also shared their perspectives on the model minority stereotype . Some shared how it reinforces harmful social pressures and treats Asians as monolithic. Others had more mixed feelings, and some had positive impressions of how the stereotype characterizes Asian Americans. ( Chapter 3 )
• Participants discussed their experiences of being discriminated against since the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 , including being shamed, harassed or attacked in public and private spaces. ( Chapter 4 )

From exclusion through World War II

Asian Americans have faced discrimination throughout their history in the United States. In the 1800s, Asians were brought to the U.S. as indentured laborers amid the emancipation of African slaves . While playing integral roles in projects like the Transcontinental Railroad , Asian immigrants faced emerging anti-Asian sentiments and exclusion , with beliefs that Asians were creating unjust labor competition and endangering mainstream American society. Congress passed laws to exclude Asian immigrants including the 1875 Page Law , the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act , among others.

In the 1920s, a series of Supreme Court cases reaffirmed previous laws that clarified that Asian immigrants, including South Asians , are not “free White persons” and therefore were excluded from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. This period also saw legislation that outlawed interracial marriage, including the 1922 Cable Act which stipulated that if U.S.-born women married “aliens ineligible for citizenship,” they would lose their own citizenship. Additionally, beginning in 1913, some states restricted Asian immigrants as well as U.S.-born Asian Americans from the right to own and lease land . Many states upheld these laws until the 1950s, and Florida’s law was only repealed in 2018 .

Beginning in 1942, Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, driven by the belief that they were spies and enemies . Throughout this period, Asians experienced discrimination in the labor market and other areas of life and were treated as foreign people who were not accepted as American.

From post-World War II to the present day

In the postwar period, immigration patterns changed. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished quotas and allowed immigration from Asia to increase . The Vietnam War and other conflicts in Southeast Asia brought refugees from the region to the U.S. in higher numbers. And the 1990 Immigration Act raised immigration ceilings and allowed the flow of Asian immigrants in professional occupations to expand.

In this period, other stereotypes about Asian Americans began to emerge. Starting from the 1960s, Asian Americans were portrayed in popular media as overachievers, intellectually and financially successful, and a group that rarely complained or spoke up. Amid the Civil Rights Movement, images of Asian Americans as a successful or “model” minority , especially in comparison with other racial or ethnic groups, proliferated. Two high-profile examples of this include the 1966 New York Times Magazine article calling Japanese Americans a “success story” and the 1987 Time magazine cover story characterizing Asian Americans as “whiz kids.”

Global tensions regularly shaped the experiences of the U.S. Asian population. The fear of economic competition with Asian countries in the postwar period contributed to rising resentment toward Asian Americans and resulted in tragedies such as the murder of Vincent Chin . In the aftermath of Sept. 11 , Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs and South Asians in the U.S. became targets of racial profiling and hate crimes due to anti-Muslim sentiments. Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic intensified anti-Asian sentiment , with many Asian Americans facing racist attacks, threats and bias across the country.

• For more on the spike in anti-Asian discrimination incidents following the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, refer to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2023, “ The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States ”; and the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernadino, 2021, “ Report to the Nation: Anti-Asian Prejudice and Hate Crime .” ↩
• Refer to previous Pew Research Center surveys of English-speaking Asian adults on Asian Americans’ concerns about being threatened or attacked following the coronavirus outbreak and whether it impacted their daily routines . ↩
• Previous research has explored how describing Asian Americans as a model minority stereotypes them, as well as how it functions in the American racial context and assimilating minorities into mainstream U.S. society. For more, refer to Wu, E.D. 2013. “ The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority .” ↩
• For more information about model minority stereotypes, refer to Lu, J.G. 2023. “ A Creativity Stereotype Perspective on the Bamboo Ceiling: Low Perceived Creativity Explains the Underrepresentation of East Asian Leaders in the United States .” Journal of Applied Psychology . ↩
• While name mispronunciation may not always be experienced as discrimination, names are strong indicators of other aspects of identity, and having one’s name mispronounced can have profound interpersonal and institutional impacts. Additionally, a common experience among Asian Americans with “difficult-to-pronounce” names is adopting an “easy-to-pronounce” or Anglicized version of their name in response to social pressure. For more, refer to Laham, S.M., P. Koval and A.L. Alter, 2012 “ The Name-Pronunciation Effect: Why People like Mr. Smith More than Mr. Colquhoun ,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; and Zhao, X. and M. Biernat, 2017, “ ‘Welcome to the U.S.’ but ‘Change your Name’? Adopting Anglo Names and Discrimination ,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. ↩
• Regional Asian origin groups include those who self-identify with an Asian ethnic origin group or multiple Asian ethnic origin groups that belong to one Asian region only. East Asian adults include those who identify as Chinese, Japanese, Korean or some other East Asian origin. South Asian adults include those who identify as Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, Pakistani or some other South Asian origin. Southeast Asian adults include those who identify as Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Vietnamese or some other Southeast Asian origin. ↩
• In this report, Asian immigrants who are “first generation” – those who came to the U.S. when they were 18 or older – and “1.5 generation” – those who came to the U.S. when they were younger than 18 – are treated as two separate groups. This differs from other Pew Research Center analyses that categorize all immigrants, regardless of the age at which they came to the U.S., as “first generation.” The distinction between “first generation” and “1.5 generation” in this report follows previous research that explores how age and life stage for foreign born, and parental nativity for U.S. born, impact and complicate the meaning and measurement of generational labels. For more, refer to Rumbaut, R.G. 2004. “ Ages, Life Stages, and Generational Cohorts: Decomposing the Immigrant First and Second Generations in the United States .” International Migration Review. ↩
• Previous research suggests that birthplace, age at immigration, and length of residence in the U.S. are linked to perceptions of discrimination. Those who were born in the U.S., immigrated at a younger age, and have resided in the U.S. for longer periods are more likely to perceive discrimination than their counterparts. For more, refer to Brondolo, E., R. Rahim, S. Grimaldi, A. Ashraf, N. Bui and J. Schwartz, 2015, “ Place of Birth Effects on Self-Reported Discrimination: Variations by Type of Discrimination ,” International Journal of Intercultural Relations; and Wong, J. and K. Ramakrishnan, 2021, “ Anti-Asian Hate Incidents and the Broader Landscape of Racial Bias ,” AAPI Data. Additionally, according to the same Pew Research Center survey, U.S.-born Asian adults are less likely than Asian immigrants to say that all or most of their friends in the U.S. are Asian . ↩
• “Asian adults who grew up in the U.S.” are those who were born in the U.S. and those who were born abroad but immigrated to the U.S. before they were 18 (that is, those who are 1.5 generation and all U.S.-born adults). Because this question asks whether Asian adults talked with their families about the challenges they might face because of their race or ethnicity when growing up, analysis is limited only to those who grew up in the U.S. to provide a consistent base for the racial context in which the respondent grew up. ↩
• Some scholars argue that the model minority stereotype of Asian Americans is used as an instrument to discipline other racial and ethnic groups and to undermine their political demands. For more on this, see Wu, E.D., 2013, “ The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority ”; and Poon, O, D. Squire, C. Kodama, A. Byrd, J. Chan, L. Manzano, S. Furr, and D. Bishundat, 2016, “ A Critical Review of the Model Minority Myth in Selected Literature on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Higher Education ,” Review of Educational Research. ↩
• In the same survey, we asked Asian adults how most people would describe them if, for example, they walked past them on the street – that is, how others perceive their racial or ethnic identity. About 60% of Asian adults say they are perceived as “Asian,” 12% say they are perceived as “Chinese,” 5% say they are perceived as “Hispanic or Latino,” 3% say they are perceived as “White,” and 18% say they are perceived as some other non-White and non-Asian race or ethnicity. Asian adults who say they are perceived as a non-White and non-Asian race or ethnicity include those who say most people would describe them as mixed race or multiracial, Arab or Middle Eastern, Native American or an Indigenous person, African American or Black, or some other race or ethnicity. Throughout this report, data for Asian adults who are perceived as White is not shown separately due to insufficient sample size. ↩

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Poverty dynamics amidst multiple crisis in Nigeria

This paper examines 3 crises, and their relationship with household poverty dynamics in Nigeria.

This paper examines 3 crises, and their relationship with household poverty dynamics in Nigeria:

Conflict focused on the Boko Haram and Fulani militia violence

Disasters, droughts and floods.

This is an output from the Data and Evidence for Tackling Extreme Poverty (DEEP) Research Programme.

Diwakar, V., Brzezinska, I. Poverty dynamics amidst multiple crises in Nigeria. DEEP Working paper 17. Data and Evidence to End Extreme Poverty Research Programme: Sussex and Oxford, 2023

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: openelm: an efficient language model family with open-source training and inference framework.

Abstract: The reproducibility and transparency of large language models are crucial for advancing open research, ensuring the trustworthiness of results, and enabling investigations into data and model biases, as well as potential risks. To this end, we release OpenELM, a state-of-the-art open language model. OpenELM uses a layer-wise scaling strategy to efficiently allocate parameters within each layer of the transformer model, leading to enhanced accuracy. For example, with a parameter budget of approximately one billion parameters, OpenELM exhibits a 2.36% improvement in accuracy compared to OLMo while requiring $2\times$ fewer pre-training tokens. Diverging from prior practices that only provide model weights and inference code, and pre-train on private datasets, our release includes the complete framework for training and evaluation of the language model on publicly available datasets, including training logs, multiple checkpoints, and pre-training configurations. We also release code to convert models to MLX library for inference and fine-tuning on Apple devices. This comprehensive release aims to empower and strengthen the open research community, paving the way for future open research endeavors. Our source code along with pre-trained model weights and training recipes is available at \url{ this https URL }. Additionally, \model models can be found on HuggingFace at: \url{ this https URL }.

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