For decades, the U.S. government has used the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) to calculate several of the most important measures of national well-being. The CPS reaches roughly 100,000 households each year and captures important information about poverty and other things. And that’s a problem, because, over time, the survey has become a misrepresentation of what is actually happening.
That, at least, is the conclusion of an important new paper looking at how well we measure poverty—and how well we take into account the impact of the safety net.
“This is a serious issue,” said Bruce D. Meyer, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. “The truth is that these government programs do a lot more to fight poverty than the survey suggests they do.”
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