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Pages 123-154

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From page 123... ... Those submitting comments were asked to outline their perceived strengths of the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) and to identify aspects in need of improvement. Read the entire page →
From page 124... ... basic needs categories should be modernized. Zarin Ahmed, Senior Policy Analyst at FPWA, argued that the current SPM methodology results in thresholds that are only slightly higher than the official poverty measure (OPM) Read the entire page →
From page 125... ... Commenters pointed out that administrative data could help resolve this timing inaccuracy as well as other aspects of the SPM resource calculation. On the other side of the ledger, the burden of debt to families was raised. Read the entire page →
From page 126... ... He proposed that the simplest solution to this temporal problem would be for the Census Bureau to release a separate, limited set of "anchored SPM" trend tables each year, based on a recent threshold adjusted for inflation. Burkhauser et al. Read the entire page →
From page 127... ... outlined her organization's perspective that federal poverty measures do not adequately adjust for the San Francisco Bay area's (and other areas') high costs of living and therefore underestimate their true poverty rates. Read the entire page →
From page 128... ... Children's HealthWatch expressed difficulty parsing equivalence scale adjustments, pointing out that explanation of the role of equivalence scales is not made adequately clear in documentation published on the Census Bureau's website. Consequently, they felt there was a degree of arbitrariness in the use of those adjustments. Read the entire page →
From page 129... ... Replacing surveyed SNAP benefits data with state-level administrative data also helps remove statistical error introduced in the imputation process. In her comment, Wheaton pointed out that the Census Bureau and others are actively working on approaches that use linked administrative data and survey data to address the problem of underreporting of program benefits in survey responses. Read the entire page →
From page 130... ... Moffitt offered a broad observation about the SPM data infrastructure: "Everyone recognizes the disadvantage of drawing thresholds and resources from different data sets with different sampling frames, different definitions of the family/consumer unit, different definitions of the variables, etc. Ideally, a survey would be designed for purpose with a sampling frame identical to that of the [Annual Social and Economic Supplement] Read the entire page →
From page 131... ... , chair of the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program at UCLA, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and nonresident fellow in the economic studies program at The Brookings Institution. He also serves as faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, research fellow at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and at the Institute for the Study of Labor, faculty affiliate at the UCLA California Center for Population Research, and faculty affiliate at UC Berkeley Center for Effective Global Action. Read the entire page →
From page 132... ... Johnson's research interests include the measurement of inequality and mobility (using income, consumption, and wealth) , the effects of tax rebates, equivalence scale estimation, poverty measurement, and price indexes, and his research focuses primarily on inequality and poverty measurement, equivalence scale estimation, and consumption. Read the entire page →
From page 133... ... His research interests focus on public policy, public finance, and heath economics. With support from the Russell Sage Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Korenman and Dahlia Remler have developed a poverty measure that includes a basic need for health care and incorporates health insurance benefits. Read the entire page →
From page 134... ... She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, having served on numerous committees including the Board on Children, Youth, and Families; the Roundtable on the Communication and Use of Social and Behavioral Sciences; and the Committee to Evaluate the Supplemental Security Income Disability Program for Children with Mental Disorders. Her recent articles have appeared in numerous journals including the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Demography, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Read the entire page →
From page 135... ... COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS The Committee on National Statistics was established in 1972 at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to improve the statistical methods and information on which public policy decisions are based. The committee carries out studies, workshops, and other activities to foster better measures and fuller understanding of the economy, the environment, public health, crime, education, immigration, poverty, welfare, and other public policy issues. Read the entire page →
From page 137... ... As noted above, the Census Bureau is exploring how the SPM can be estimated from ACS data, 13 and demand for this exists among researchers and policy analysts as it allows for state and sub-state estimates using yearly data with high demographic detail. A number of states, including New York, California, Wisconsin, and Virginia, produce their own SPM using the ACS, as do several cities, including New York City, which pioneered an ACS-based SPM, and San Francisco (e.g., Smeeding and Thornton, 2020; Bohn et al., 2021) Read the entire page →
From page 138... ... and abroad. The Census Bureau obtains higher response rates in its surveys than do other organizations, but even Census Bureau surveys have not been immune to the problem. Read the entire page →
From page 139... ... Their analysis found evidence of a partisan cycle in survey response, but partisanship, and notably the growth of the Tea Party, did not explain the observed trend increase. Improving survey response rates, or at least stemming the growth in nonresponse, is and should continue to be a high priority for the Census Bureau. Read the entire page →
From page 140... ... While explicit recommendations for improving response rates in the CPS-ASEC are beyond the scope of this report, the panel notes that long-running household panels like the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) have item nonresponse rates on earnings that are about onethird the level found in the CPS-ASEC. Read the entire page →
From page 141... ... Item nonresponse rates to expenditure questions In the CE, item response rates are not easily calculated. Since many questions ask only for the dollar amount and not the incidence of purchase, standard item response rates are not available. Read the entire page →
From page 142... ... estimated the effect of net underreporting on estimates of deep poverty, poverty, and near poverty, using matched CPS-ASEC and administrative records for New York State for 2008–2011 for SNAP, TANF, General Assistance, and housing assistance. Using the administrative records, they found a reduction of 0.9, 2.5, and 3.1 percentage points (for people in deep poverty, poverty, and near poverty, respectively) Read the entire page →
From page 143... ... , National School Lunch Program, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and rental assistance into the CE data for developing SPM thresholds. Meyer et al. Read the entire page →
From page 144... ... Elsewhere, BLS uses IRS zip-code-level income estimates to weight adjustments for unit nonresponse in the CE; and the Census Bureau uses administrative records (SNAP and IRS records, specifically) to annually update small-area income and poverty (OPM) Read the entire page →
From page 145... ... , summarizes the records currently available to the Census Bureau. In these applications, the administrative records are linked to Census Bureau surveys such as the CPS-ASEC using a unique Protected Identification Key (PIK) Read the entire page →
From page 146... ... on Evaluating Alternative Measures of Poverty (BLS, 2020) that the Census Bureau should accelerate its examination of a variety of approaches for integrating administrative data into poverty measurement, including replacement, using both sources, and regression-based imputation. Read the entire page →
From page 147... ... Drawing from their Census Bureau experience acquiring and linking administrative records to each other and to surveys, Bee and Rothbaum (2019, p. Read the entire page →
From page 148... ... Public Assistance States: DHHS: TANF Not available for all states; not all cash assistance covered Veterans' Benefits Veterans Administration: Administrative data Some benefit data available for limited uses (limited) Disability IRS: 1099-R, limited data Excludes Social Security and VA Survivor Income IRS: 1099-R, limited data Excludes Social Security and VA Interest IRS: 1040 Includes taxable and nontaxable; excludes tax-preferred IRS: 1099-INT -- not available Dividends IRS: 1040 Excludes tax-preferred IRS: 1099-DIV -- not available Rent and Royalty IRS: 1040 Only gross rent Income IRS: 1040 Schedule E, K-1 -- not available Excludes depreciation 6-26 Read the entire page →
From page 149... ... , 1040 -- not available Near-Income Items States: SNAP, WIC Availability varies by year; not available for all states Centers for Medicare & Medicade Services (CMS) /DHHS: Medicare Does not cover all possible sources of housing assistance CMS/DHHS: Medicaid Available for one state for some years States: School Lunch -- not available HUD: Housing Assistance States: Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program SOURCE: Adapted from Bee and Rothbaum (2019, Table 1) Read the entire page →
From page 150... ... In particular, the Census Bureau should aggressively explore the strategy of using federal and state administrative records to improve models for imputation for item nonresponse, including nonreporting of receipt as well as amounts. RECOMMENDATION 6.3: In developing a Principal Poverty Measure that integrates administrative data to the greatest extent possible, the Census Bureau should produce a historical series comparing an experimental Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) Read the entire page →
From page 151... ... While some detailed information may need to be accessed within secure research data centers, the Census Bureau must assess the appropriate trade-offs between new disclosure-avoidance methods and the usefulness of PPM data for researchers and other data users, such as mayors of small towns, minority advocates, and policy makers. Read the entire page →
From page 152... ... in the Principal Poverty Measure (PPM) , the Bureau of Labor Statistics should use 3 years of Consumer Expenditure Survey data instead of the current 5 years of data. Read the entire page →
From page 153... ... 25 RECOMMENDATION 6.5: For calculating Principal Poverty Measure thresholds, the Bureau of Labor Statistics should use all consumer units captured in the Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey (not just those with children) Read the entire page →
From page 154... ... , which is the basis for SNAP benefits, it is assumed that teenage males have a higher calorie requirement than male adults, and hence, households with teenage males have a higher TFP cost. RECOMMENDATION 6.6: The Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics should reexamine the use of the three-parameter scale to respecify the basic needs bundle for the Principal Poverty Measure. Read the entire page →

From page 123...

... Those submitting comments were asked to outline their perceived strengths of the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) and to identify aspects in need of improvement.