Gazeley, Ian 
ORCID: 0000-0002-4277-1001, Gutierrez Rufrancos, Hector, Newell, Andrew, Reynolds, Kevin and Searle, Rebecca
(2017)
The poor and the poorest, 50 years on: evidence from British Household Expenditure Surveys of the 1950s and 1960s.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 180 (2).
455 - 474.
ISSN 0964-1998
Abstract
We re-explore Abel-Smith and Townsend's landmark study of poverty in early post World War 2 Britain. They found a large increase in poverty between 1953-1954 and 1960, which was a period of relatively strong economic growth. Our re-examination is a first exploitation of the data extracted from the recent digitization of the Ministry of Labour's ?Enquiry into household expenditure? in 1953-1954. First we closely replicate their results. We find that Abel-Smith and Townsend's method generated a greater rise in poverty than other reasonable methods. Using contemporary standard poverty lines, we find that the relative poverty rate grew only a little at most, and the absolute poverty rate fell, between 1953-1954 and 1961, as might be expected in a period of rising real incomes and steady inequality. We also extend the poverty rate time series of Goodman and Webb back to 1953-1954.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/146798... |
| Additional Information: | © 2016 Royal Statistical Society |
| Divisions: | Economic History |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Aug 2019 11:33 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Sep 2024 07:53 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101324 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
