Seebohm Rowntree and the Post-War Poverty Puzzle

Roy Bailey and Timothy Hatton

No 2147, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: In his third social survey of York carried out in 1950, Seebohm Rowntree reported a steep decline since 1936 of the percentage of households in poverty. He attributed the bulk of this decline to government welfare reforms enacted during and after the War. Some observers have been uneasy about these striking results, especially with the rediscovery of poverty in the 1960s. In this paper we re-examine the surviving records from the 1950 survey, making the poverty line more consistent with that of 1936 and looking more closely at the measurement of income. We also re-assess the impact of welfare reforms on working class poverty. We find that poverty in York was significantly higher, and the contribution of welfare reform substantially less, than was originally reported. These findings suggest a less optimistic view of the impact of welfare reforms during the Beveridge era.

Keywords: Post-War Britain; Poverty; Seebohm Rowntree; Social Security; Social Surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 I32 I38 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: Seebohm Rowntree and the postwar poverty puzzle (2000)
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