TITLE:
Poverty in Poland and the United States: A Comparison of Key Characteristics, Composition, and Prospects
AUTHORS:
Bozena Leven
KEYWORDS:
Measurement and Analysis of Poverty, Comparative Studies of Poverty
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.7 No.5,
May
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: This
study provides a comparative approach to assess the state of Polish poverty. To
do so, poverty in Poland and the United States is presented in terms of
selected general, shared characteristics and particularly vulnerable societal
groups. Using official, primarily income based, statistics for Poland and the
United States, we conclude that a higher percentage of the overall population
in the United States is poor and, relative to median country-specific incomes,
that the US poverty is deeper than in Poland. In addition, more children, the
elderly, and the disabled are poor in America than in Poland; the breadth of
poverty is wider in the United States and, perhaps most importantly, may in
some important ways also be more intractable.