Empirical Poverty Research in a Comparative Perspective

Research on poverty has attracted much attention in the past years from sociology, economists and political scientists. Most research findings are rather descriptive, although the number of applications testing specific hypotheses derived from macro or micro theories is increasing. This book aims to add to the second stream of research and includes articles from different countries with results based on empirical micro-data. The focus lies on comparative research contrasting different countries and welfare regimes, by looking at changes in time, by using different poverty indicators, and by comparing groups and individuals with different economic, social, and psychic characteristics. The book starts with an introductory chapter on conceptual and empirical problems of poverty measurement followed by 14 articles analyzing the incidence, time trend and stability of poverty in the USA and major European countries