Gazeley, Ian, Gutierrez Rufrancos, Hector, Newell, Andrew, Reynolds, Kevin and Searle, Rebecca (2016) 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). ISSN 0964-1998

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Inequality, 1950s Britain, Poverty
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > American Studies School of Business, Management and Economics > Economics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic history and conditions
Depositing User:	Ian Gazeley
Date Deposited:	15 Jun 2016 09:10
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2017 12:21
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/61501

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