Partridge and Rickman explore the wide geographic disparities in poverty across the United States. Their focus on the spatial dimensions of U.S. poverty reveals distinct differences across states, metropolitan areas, and counties and leads them to consider why antipoverty policies have succeeded in some places and failed in others. This leads them to propose the targeted use of place-based policies as an antipoverty tool. They contend that place-based policies are needed to supplement people-based policies primarily because disadvantaged workers are often less likely to move to locations with vibrant economies; jobs need to be created close enough to poor households that residents can take advantage of those jobs, whether they have received training or not. Partridge and Rickman also show that the most economically disadvantaged areas experience the greatest reductions in poverty with the creation of new jobs.

The Geography of American Poverty: Is There a Need for Place-Based Policies? PDF

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