Title: Analysis of U.S. Interstate Variation in Changes in Poverty Incidence and Income Inequality (1969-1979).

Abstract approved: In spite of the rapid economic growth of the post-war era, there has not been significant improvement in the incidence of poverty, nor in the inequality of income distribution around the world, and particularly in the developing countries. A reason for the apparent failure of the poor to benefit from the effects of the post-war economic growth, as a number of development economists have hypo-thesized, lies in the structure of the economy. They argued that when it comes to alleviating poverty or improving the distribution of income, the type of growth is as important or more important than the rate of growth. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis on the relationship among economic structure, poverty incidence, and income inequality, by determining whether the changes in the structure of the U.S. economy during 1969-1979 have had any impacts on the change