This new edition of American Poverty in a New Era of Reform provides a comprehensive examination of the extent, causes …, effects, and costs of American poverty nearly ten years after the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity … to evaluate the impact of this sweeping legislation on federal and state policies, as well as on poverty populations …

Progressively targeted cash transfers remain the dominant policy response to chronic poverty in developing countries …. But are there alternative social protection policies that might have larger poverty impacts over time for the same public … vulnerable, but non-poor households in the wake of negative shocks, can result in lower rates of poverty in the medium term than …