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Reconciling the Official Poverty Measure and CBO’s Distributional Analysis of Household Income

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  • Congressional Budget Office

Abstract

CBO’s distributional analysis of household income shows that from 1979 to 2021, income after transfers and taxes among households in the lowest quintile (or fifth) of the income distribu¬tion increased significantly, after adjusting for inflation. However, the Census Bureau’s official poverty measure (OPM) has not decreased significantly over that same period. In this report, CBO investigates that seeming disparity by examining how its method for analyzing the distribution of household income differs from the Census Bureau’s method for calculating the OPM.

Suggested Citation

  • Congressional Budget Office, 2025. "Reconciling the Official Poverty Measure and CBO’s Distributional Analysis of Household Income," Reports 60809, Congressional Budget Office.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbo:report:60809
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    File URL: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-01/60809-poverty.pdf
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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