WPS-93-2016.pdf (894.12 kB)
The poor and the poorest, 50 years on: evidence from British Household Expenditure surveys of the 1950s and 1960s
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 01:41 authored by Ian Gazeley, Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos, Andrew Newell, Kevin Reynolds, Rebecca SearleWe 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
0964-1998Publisher
Royal Statistical SocietyExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
180Page range
455-474Department affiliated with
- Economics Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes