The Poor and the Poorest, fifty years on: Evidence from British Household Expenditure Surveys of the 1950s and 1960s

Ian Gazeley, Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos, Andrew Newell, Kevin Reynolds and Rebecca Searle
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Kevin Reynolds: Department of History, University of Sussex
Rebecca Searle: Department of History, University of Sussex

Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: We re-explore Abel-Smith and Townsend’s landmark study of poverty in early post WW2 Britain. They found a large increase in poverty between 1953-4 and 1960, a period of relatively strong economic growth. Our re-examination is a first exploitation of the data extracted from the recent digitisation of the Ministry of Labour’s Enquiry into Household Expenditure in 1953-4. First we closely replicate their results. We find that Abel-Smith and Townsend’s method generated a greater rise in poverty than other reasonable methods. Using contemporary standard poverty lines, we find that the relative poverty rate grew only a little at most, and the absolute poverty rate fell, between 1953-4 and 1961, as might be expected in a period of rising real incomes and steady inequality. We also extend the poverty rate time series of Goodman and Webb (1995) back to 1953-4.

Keywords: poverty; inequality; 1950s; Britain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N14 N34 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sus:susewp:09316

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