This is a report from a panel commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the early nineties that proposed a major revamp of the methodology used to determine offical poverty threshholds and guidelines.

Go to the bottom of the page, and especially check the links to the preface and the executive summary. Warning. This is VERY dry reading.

This represents good and thoughtful research methodology, tries to stay out of the politics of the issue, and clearly acknowledges that all decisions regarding social science research includes an element of judgement (value judgement).


Their recommendations have never been implemented. I did not research further to see if they were ignored or outright rejected by policy makers.


http://books.nap.edu/readingroom/books/poverty/index.html