Poverty in the Texas borderland and lower Mississippi Delta: A comparative analysis of differences by family type

Tim Slack, Dudley L. Poston, Joachim Singelmann, Kayla Fontenot, Rogelio Saenz and Carlos Siordia
Additional contact information
Tim Slack: Louisiana State University
Dudley L. Poston: Texas A&M University
Joachim Singelmann: Louisiana State University
Kayla Fontenot: Louisiana State University
Rogelio Saenz: University of Texas at San Antonio
Carlos Siordia: West Virginia University

Demographic Research, 2009, vol. 20, issue 15, 353-376

Abstract: We provide a comparative analysis of county-level poverty in the two poorest regions of the United States - the Texas Borderland and the Lower Mississippi Delta - with a special focus on differences by family type. Our results reveal important regional variation in both the prevalence of poverty and the composition of the poor population across major family types. Using OLS regression models of family type-specific poverty we demonstrate three key findings: 1) There are no significant regional differences in poverty levels by family type between the Borderland and the Delta, net of important structural factors that characterize the regions; 2) with the exception of the employment rate, the structural factors associated with poverty among married couple and single female-headed families are quite different; and 3) paradoxically, areas in the Borderland with high in-migration are especially likely to suffer from high married-couple family poverty. Our results suggest the need for regionally targeted and demographically tailored anti-poverty policies.

Keywords: poverty; family structure; Mississippi Delta; persistent poverty; regional poverty; Texas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol20/15/20-15.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:20:y:2009:i:15

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2009.20.15

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Demographic Research from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Editorial Office ().