Wisconsin Poverty Report: Were Antipoverty Policies Effective in 2009?

Economic need has grown in Wisconsin over the past few years as the effects of the Great Recession have hit the state head on. Conventional poverty measures indicate a rise in poverty between 2008 and 2009 for all individuals and for children. Yet the story differs under the more comprehensive Wisconsin Poverty Measure, which finds little change in the number of poor individuals and families after measuring the impact of public policies designed to help the poor and the unemployed. In this third annual Wisconsin Poverty Report, we use the Wisconsin measure to examine need in 2009 and changes in economic security from 2008 to 2009. Unveiled by Institute for Research on Poverty researchers last year, the Wisconsin Poverty Measure more broadly assesses needs and resources to better understand the impact of state and federal policies.
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