Three types of "the poor": A typology using poverty duration and poverty recurrence

A great deal of poverty literature has dealt with "the poor" as a homogenous group, ignoring different poverty patterns. Even though all of them are called "poor" at a certain point in time, they may have distinct characteristics and needs according to the nature of their poverty experience. Thus, it is inappropriate to characterize all poor people within a single category. Research conducted in other fields, such as homelessness, mental health, and criminology, has tried to classify target populations into several subgroups. This kind of typological approach allows researchers to identify the unique characteristics of each subgroup and develop "target-oriented" interventions and policy responses. As such, a typology of "the poor" can yield crucial insights on the nature of poverty experience, and help social work professionals and policy makers to develop more effective anti-poverty strategies. Despite its importance, there has rarely been systematic and empirical research which has investigated such a typology. To fill this research gap, we empirically identified a typology of "the poor," by using the concept of poverty dynamics, and discussed their socio-economic and demographic characteristics.

Introduced by Bane and Ellwood in their classical poverty study, the concept of poverty dynamics embraces two important components, poverty duration and poverty recurrence. Poverty duration refers to the time period for which poor people stay on poverty status. Poverty recurrence refers to the total number of poverty incidences individuals experience in a given time period. For a typology model, we incorporated these two components as the main criteria. Therefore, the typology model of this study posits that varying patterns of the poor represent distinct case profiles, not only in terms of the severity of poverty incidences, but also in terms of the frequency. As such our typology model provides a more textured explanation of poverty experience. We analyzed 2,584 households from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study, nine-year longitudinal data from 1997 to 2005. We identified different poverty types by employing the technique of "cluster analysis." Based on the results of cluster analysis we used multinomial logistic regression to investigate differences in the characteristics of each type of poor.

Cluster analysis identified three types of the poor, namely, chronic, episodic, and transitional poor. The “chronic poor” had a single poverty incidence during the nine-year period, yet the average poverty duration was as long as 7.1 years. In contrast, the “episodic poor” experienced the highest number of poverty incidences (3.1 episodes) but the shortest average poverty duration (1.4 years). In comparison to these groups, the “transitional poor” had an average of 1.1 poverty incidences and average poverty duration of 1.6 years. The multinomial logistic regression indicated that childhood poverty experience, age and health of household heads, and employment type are significant factors in determining the types of the poor.

The findings of the study revealed that there are significant differences among the poor which need to be taken into account for effective policy implementation. Based on the empirical findings, we suggested three policy directions for more efficient anti-poverty strategies.