This presentation, delivered at a University of Maryland Welfare Reform Academy conference on "Reconsidering the Federal Poverty Measure," covers:

1. the poverty rate as a predictor of socioeconomic progress and household consumption;
2. expenditure patterns of poor/low income households and associated household characteristics in four major consumption areas: nutrition, housing, transportation, health;
3. additional indicators of wellbeing: subjective wellbeing (happiness), crime and security, welfare dependence, family stability, religion in personal life, and financial emergencies;
4. some suggestions for other indicators of wellbeing.

 Download the presentation slides (Adobe Acrobat PDF).

Nicholas Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at AEI.