Defining and Documenting Citywide Poverty
Abstract: This project addresses the challenge that American poverty has stacked up in particular cities, towns, and counties. When local governments are populated mostly by low-income people, there is typically much less money for public schools and services. Weak, broke local governments make it harder for residents to lead decent lives on low incomes or get their families out of poverty. But current poverty metrics (which focus on poverty at the individual, neighborhood, metro, and larger scales) rarely measure or document poverty within city and county government borders—that is, the incidence of poverty and lower incomes within the local borders that define tax bases and affect funding for services. In collaboration with the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Professor Anderson is seeking a measurement for poverty that captures both concentrated poverty and lower median incomes within local tax bases, then applying that metric within each state to document cities, towns, and counties facing this problem. The RA will be involved in the empirical research to define/find such places and in the work of gathering feedback and building coalitions among affected places.
Research Tasks: The RA's primary responsibilities will be to conduct online research and work with partners in affected states to help identify, organize and share information among affected cities. They will also prepare data for academic and non-academic deliverables, contribute to reports and other explanatory pieces for partners and broader public audiences, and help edit academic papers stemming from this project. Professor Anderson will work closely with and mentor the RA through weekly meetings (either one-on-one or with the full team of students and researchers at the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality), partner meetings, and regular communication via text/email.
Qualifications: Experience handling Census data would be a plus, as would basic coursework relating to the history or sociology of American poverty; life experience or interest in poverty/inequality.
