War on Poverty: Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States

surance policies aimed atalleviating poverty. Fifty years later, many of these programs and policies—or variations of them—are still in effect. Primarily using data from literature, this paper analyzes the effectiveness of antipoverty programs over the last half-century.We find that social insurance programs have had much stronger effects on reducing poverty rates than have social assistance programs. Overall, the U.S. social welfare system tends to favor in-kind over cash benefits, and has expanded the scope and reach of its provision of medical care, food, and tax benefits. While antipoverty programs and policies have been somewhat successful in alleviating poverty among the elderly and disabled, they have failed to alleviate poverty among single mothers and their children. Research Report #17 November 2014