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Researching poverty: Methods, results and impact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Peter Saunders
Peter Saunders*
Affiliation:
The University of New South Wales, Australia
*
Peter Saunders, Social Policy Research Centre, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Email: P.Saunders@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

This article draws on evidence generated in recent deprivation studies conducted by the author and colleagues at the Social Policy Research Centre. After outlining some of the main limitations of poverty line studies, the paper explains how the deprivation approach addresses these weaknesses and illustrates the insights that deprivation studies can provide into the nature of poverty in contemporary Australia. It then compares the results produced by a deprivation approach with those produced using a poverty line – both in terms of what they imply about the extent of the problem and who they suggest is most affected by it. The comparisons demonstrate that the reservations that many hold about poverty research can be overcome and that when this is done, the results become more compelling and thus have the potential to have a greater impact on anti-poverty policy.

Keywords

I13Deprivationhousing costspovertypoverty measurement
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 205 - 218
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2013

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