"Enough for a Family to Live On?"--
Questions from Members of the American Public
and New Perspectives from British Social Scientists
by
Gordon M. Fisher
A paper presented November 2, 2001,
at the Twenty-Third Annual Research Conference
of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Washington, D.C.
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author, and do
not represent the position of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
November 2001
(202)690-6143
gfisher@osaspe.dhhs.gov
[ndqppr1c.nnt]
CONTENTS
Introduction....................................................1
Questions from Members of the American Public...................1
The Approaches to be Discussed--General Background..............2
The "Consensual Deprivation Indicator" Approach.................3
The Budget Standards Approach...................................7
The "Subjective" Poverty Line Approach.........................12
The "Consensual Budget Standards" Approach.....................15
Conclusion.....................................................18
Appendix A. Some Conceptual Definitions of Poverty from
Britain, the European Community, and the United Nations......20
Appendix B. Social Deprivation in Britain vs. Material
Hardship in the U.S..........................................23
Bibliography...................................................24
Endnotes.......................................................34
The theme of this year's APPAM conference is the
relationship between public policy analysis/research and public
policy. APPAM has encouraged the participation of both policy
analysts and policy practitioners in the conference. Implicit in
this theme and this encouragement is the idea that public policy
issues may look different to analysts and practitioners, and that
both groups may benefit by sharing their different perspectives
o