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Journal Article 1: Peters, D. (2009). Typology of American poverty. International Regional Science Review, 32(1), 19-39.

Abstract: This analysis seeks to better understand the geography of American poverty over time. Cluster analysis is used to group 34,908 minor civil divisions according to their similarity in mean-centered poverty rates from 1980 to 2000. Logistic regression is used to assess the groupings' statistical validity and accuracy. Results identify twelve statistically distinct groupings and that over three thousand subcounty places had poverty rates of nearly 20 percent above the national average going back to 1980. However, less than 50 percent of these fall within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Persistent Poverty Counties.

Journal Article 2: Clawson, R. (2002). Poor people, Black faces: The portrayal of poverty in economics textbooks. Journal of Black Studies, 32(3), 352-361.

Abstract: In this study, the author examines the portrayal of poverty in economics textbooks. The author tests the hypothesis that Blacks are disproportionately represented among the poor. In other words, she analyzes whether poverty is predicted as a “Black” problem. She found evidence that Black faces are overwhelmingly portrayed among the contemporary poor.

Journal Article 3: Strully, K., Rehkopf, D., & Xuan, Z. (2010). Effects of prenatal poverty on infant health: State earned income tax credits and birth weight. American Sociological Review, 75(4), 534-562.

Abstract: This study estimates the effects of prenatal poverty on birth weight using changes in state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) as a natural experiment. The study seeks to answer two questions about poverty and child wellbeing. First, are there associations between prenatal poverty and lower birth weights even after factoring out unmeasured potential confounders? Because birth weight predicts a range of outcomes across the life course, lower birth weights that result from poverty may have lasting consequences for children’s life chances. Second, how have recent expansions of a work-based welfare program (i.e., the EITC) affected maternal and infant health?

Journal Article 4: Wagmiller, R., Lennon, M., Kuang, L., Alberti, P., & Aber, J. (2006). The dynamics of economic disadvantage and children’s life chances. American Sociological Review, 71(5), 847-866.

Abstract: Recent research suggests that child well-being and subsequent status attainment are influenced not only by the duration of exposure to economic disadvantage during childhood, but also by the timing and sequencing of exposure.  In this article, the authors propose a new method for assessing economic disadvantage during childhood that simultaneously captures.  The authors find that extended exposure to economic deprivation during childhood is least favorable to early adulthood achievement, but that—at least for human capital formation—the timing and sequencing of poverty also are important.

Journal Article 5: Somers, M., & Block, F. (2005). From poverty to perversity: Ideas, markets, and institutions over 200 years of welfare debate. American Sociological Review, 70(2), 260-287.

Abstract: To understand the rise of market fundamentalism from the margins of influence to mainstream hegemony, this study compares the U.S. 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act and the English 1834 New Poor Law—two episodes in which existing welfare regimes were overturned by market-driven ones. Despite dramatic differences across the cases, both outcomes were mobilized by “the perversity thesis”—a public discourse that reassigned blame for the poor’s condition from “poverty to perversity.” Coupling economic sociology with sociology of ideas, the researchers argue that ideas count; but not all ideas are created equal.