Hi,
I’m trying to calculate the percentage of people in each state that were below the poverty line in 1950. It seems like the 1950 1% sample available through iPums-USA is the best source of data on this. However, I’m getting confusing results. When I look at the micro-data, it appears that only 10% of the people in 1950 were at or below the poverty level. However, this article suggests that 40% of the population in 1950 was below the poverty rate (http://www.cepr.net/documents/publica…). Is there something obvious I’m doing wrong? Perhaps I should subset the data to heads of households?
Thanks,
Chris