Fisher Jonathan D, Johnson David S, Marchand Joseph T, Smeeding Timothy M, Torrey Barbara B
Litigation Analytics Inc., New York, NY 10017, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2009 Nov;64(6):758-66. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbp022. Epub 2009 Apr 9.
Public policies target a subset of the population defined as poor or needy, but rarely are people poor or needy in the same way. This is particularly true among older adults. This study investigates poverty among older adults in order to identify who among them is financially worst off.
We use 20 years of data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the income and consumption of older Americans.
The poverty rate is cut in fourth if both income and consumption are used to define poverty. Those most likely to be poor defined by only income but not poor defined by income and consumption together are married, White, and homeowners and have a high school diploma or higher. The income poor alone display sufficient assets to raise consumption above poverty thresholds, whereas the consumption poor are shown to have income just above the poverty threshold and few assets.
The poorest among the older population are those who are income and consumption poor. Understanding the nature of this double poverty population is important in measuring the success of future public policies to reduce poverty among this group.
公共政策针对的是被界定为贫困或有需求的一部分人群，但人们陷入贫困或有需求的方式很少相同。在老年人中尤其如此。本研究调查老年人中的贫困情况，以便确定其中经济状况最差的是哪些人。
我们使用消费者支出调查的20年数据来研究美国老年人的收入和消费情况。
如果同时使用收入和消费来界定贫困，贫困率会降低四分之三。仅根据收入最有可能贫困但根据收入和消费共同衡量不贫困的人群是已婚、白人、有住房且拥有高中或更高学历的人。仅收入贫困者拥有足够资产将消费提高到贫困线以上，而消费贫困者的收入刚好高于贫困线且几乎没有资产。
老年人口中最贫困的是那些收入和消费都贫困的人。了解这一双重贫困人口的本质对于衡量未来减少该群体贫困的公共政策的成效很重要。
