Are the poor, as one writer suggests, only those without enough to eat?

Or does poverty instead consist of "the inability to buy a beer when everyone else has one"? These two volumes provide a comprehensive summary and annotated bibliography of the issues associated with the definition and measurement of poverty.

The discussion is organized around eleven topics in the areas of economics, political science, and sociology.

Included are such diverse subjects as the historical evolution of poverty definitions (How did Karl Marx and Adam Smith define poverty?); the "index number" problem; and regional differences in poverty measurement. The annotated bibliography, including both articles and books, primarily covers material written after 1950.