Incidence of poverty among elderly men and women

Despite the improved economic situation of the elderly as a whole, certain segments of the aged still face severe economic hardships. The focus of this study is on elderly women. Because of the longevity differences by sex, interrupted labor force participation, and sexual earnings gap, elderly women often face income maintenance problems in old age;Data from the 1968, 1973, 1978, and 1983 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are analyzed to examine the poverty situation among the elderly. A subsample of white households headed by those aged 47 and over in 1968 (N = 733) are followed over time;Results from logit models indicate that the households headed by the nonmarried and also by the old-old, most of which are female headed households, are much more likely to be in poverty. The probability of being in poverty is not found to increase over time. The pattern of effects of independent variables on the poverty incidence is similar even with three different levels of the poverty threshold;In addition to sex, marital status, and age, the effects of human capital investments on the poverty incidence are examined using data from the 1983 wave. Only households headed by the retired (N = 574) are analyzed. Sex, marital status, and age lose their significance in explaining poverty after controlling for human capital variables. Among three human capital variables, education and private pension show significant effects on the poverty incidence in old age. The length of work experience is less significant. Although the direction of the effects remains the same, effects of sex and marital status on poverty become more significant with increasing levels of the poverty threshold. This implies that many nonmarried women have incomes just above the official poverty line;The results provide support for both human capital and dual labor market theories in accounting for poverty in old age. Both human capital and labor market factors seem to create unequal resources for dealing with retirement and old age. Feminization of poverty among younger populations could cause serious economic problems for future cohorts of elderly women