Rates of Long-Term Childhood Poverty by Race over Three Decades

Lloyd D. Grieger, University of Michigan
Jessica J.B. Wyse, University of Michigan

In this study, we estimate rates of long-term child poverty over three decades – the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s using multiple measures of poverty and identify factors associated with changes/stability in long-term child poverty. We focus particularly on whether African-American children’s chances of experiencing long-term poverty dropped over time, whether race differences in risks of long-term child poverty narrowed over time, how cross-period demographic changes affected children’s long-term poverty rates, and how income packages of long-term poor and long-term low income families changed between the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s. Using multiple measurements of poverty, we employ data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics on children and their families over the last three decades and utilize sophisticated tax estimation software from the National Bureau of Economic Research to conduct our analysis.