Alternative Poverty Measures
GGD-96-183R: Published: Sep 10, 1996. Publicly Released: Sep 10, 1996.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
Contact:
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Slesnick consumption measure, an alternative to the official U.S. government measure of poverty, focusing on: (1) how the Slesnick measure differs from the official measure; (2) the methodology used to test the alternative measure; and (3) the sources of data used in that methodology. GAO noted that: (1) because of inadequate data household consumption, the Slesnick measure used three different data sources to develop a consumption-based measure of poverty; (2) the Slesnick measure yielded a poverty rate of 8.4 percent in 1989, while the official measure of poverty yielded a 12.8-percent rate in 1989; (3) the Slesnick and the official measures of poverty differed regarding the dollar amounts of threshholds, measures of economic well-being, and the use of equivalence scales, cost-of-living indexes, and population data for grouping households; (4) a per capita ratio of expenditures from Personal Consumption Expenditures and Consumer Expenditure Survey data sources was used to test the sensitivity of the Slesnick measure to differences in data sources; (5) the consumption-based measure of poverty generally produced a lower rate than the official poverty measure; and (6) the use of different sources of consumption data affected the size of the differences between the Slesnick and official poverty measures.
Nov 16, 2020
-
Financial Audit:
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-174R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Federal Housing Finance Agency's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-201R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Securities and Exchange Commission's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-192R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020.
Nov 10, 2020
-
Financial Audit:
IRS's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-162: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Office of Financial Stability's (Troubled Asset Relief Program) FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-173R: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020.
Nov 9, 2020
-
Financial Audit:
Bureau of the Fiscal Service's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Schedules of Federal DebtGAO-21-124: Published: Nov 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Nov 6, 2020
-
FY 2020 Excise Tax:
Agreed-Upon Procedures Related to Distributions to Trust FundsGAO-21-163R: Published: Nov 6, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 6, 2020.
Oct 13, 2020
-
DOD Financial Management:
Continued Efforts Needed to Correct Material Weaknesses Identified in Financial Statement AuditsGAO-21-157: Published: Oct 13, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 13, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
-
Financial Management:
DOD Needs to Implement Comprehensive Plans to Improve Its Systems EnvironmentGAO-20-252: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 9, 2020
-
Defense Real Property:
DOD-Wide Strategy Needed to Address Control Issues and Improve Reliability of RecordsGAO-20-615: Published: Sep 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 9, 2020.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here