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The poor and the poorest, 50 years on: evidence from British Household Expenditure surveys of the 1950s and 1960s

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posted on 2023-06-09, 01:41 authored by Ian Gazeley, Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos, Andrew Newell, Kevin Reynolds, Rebecca Searle
We re-explore Abel-Smith and Townsend’s landmark study of poverty in early post WW2 Britain. They found a large increase in poverty between 1953-4 and 1960, a period of relatively strong economic growth. Our re-examination is a first exploitation of the data extracted from the recent digitisation of the Ministry of Labour’s Enquiry into Household Expenditure in 1953-4. 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 1953-4 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 (1995) back to 1953-4.

Funding

British Living Standards; R2E8; ESRC; RES=062-23-2054

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society)

ISSN

0964-1998

Publisher

Royal Statistical Society

Issue

2

Volume

180

Page range

455-474

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-06-15

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-04-10

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-06-15

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