Using Birth weights to Chart the Spatial Distribution of Poverty

Investigation of the dynamic geography of urban poverty is complicated by the shortage of data on household situations at the neighbothood level. This paper suggests that institutional data on poverty-related factors such as welfare receipt, unemployment, school-leaving, and crime be used for such study. The approach is illustrated by studying the changing geographic incidence of low birth weights and homicides in Oakland, California.

Written with Michael Wiseman.

Investigation of the dynamic geography of urban poverty is complicated by the shortage of data on household situations at the neighbothood level. This paper suggests that institutional data on poverty-related factors such as welfare receipt, unemployment, school-leaving, and crime be used for such study. The approach is illustrated by studying the changing geographic incidence of low birth weights and homicides in Oakland, California.

Recently the focus of both research on poverty and debate over poverty policy has shifted from the incidence and persistence of poverty among all households to the spatial concentration of poor households in particular urban neighborhoods and the association of concentrated urban poverty with other social problems, including pregnancy among teenagers, crime, and drug dependence. Central to the literature on the spatial distribution of poverty is the neighborhood effects hypothesis (NEH): for any family or individual currently poor, the prospects for leaving poverty are in part influenced by the neighborhood and its social environment.