CAS EC 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Extreme Poverty
13 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Us poverty line= fixed real dollar amount, adjusted for family size. Extreme poverty: per day per person (1990), . 9 per day per person (2016), adjusted for inflation=. 9 and . 8. Us poverty line> developing country poverty lines. No change in total us poverty rate since 1965. Increase in poverty among children; decrease in poverty among elderly. Inequality: decreasing shares of bottom 60% since mid 1970s. Increasing share of top 20% and especially top 1% and top 0. 1%. Most of the growth in per capita income has gone to very top. Stagnation of incomes in middle and bottom quintiles. Computers, technology have increased demand for skilled workers. Decline of unions, decline in real minimum wage. Immigration, trade with developing countries have decreased demand for unskilled. Huge increase of incomes at the top shift in output and profits to finance change in social norms. More winner take all tournaments increased share of gdp to capital.
