SPMTHRESHANC12_19RYALT is a 22-digit floating point variable.

Description

SPMTHRESHANC12_19RYALT records the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) threshold for each SPM family (SPMFAMUNIT_19RYALT), anchored to a 2012 standard of living. This anchored poverty threshold provides a more absolute measure of poverty than its unanchored corollary SPMTHRESH_19RYALT, allowing for a comparison over time that holds consumer behavior and living standards to a constant reference period.

This variable is an alternative version of SPMTHRESHANC12 that reflects variables that were re-released for the 2020 ASEC which reflects methodological changes first introduced with the 2021 CPS ASEC sample. For more information, see our documentation on the re-release of the 2019 SPM research file in the 2020 ASEC that describes methodological improvements that impact SPM resource and threshold variables. The SPM reference year is the calendar year to which the income, taxes, transfers, expenses, and poverty thresholds apply.

About SPM Thresholds
SPM thresholds are based on a rolling five-year average of consumption. The year-to-year changes in the SPM thresholds thus do not just reflect inflation but also changes in the social patterns of expenditures across these categories. The SPM has separate baseline thresholds depending on a family's housing tenure status (i.e., renters, owners with a mortgage, owners without a mortgage); these thresholds are adjusted for family size and composition as well as geographic location. Therefore, the SPM thresholds provide a quasi-relative standard for meeting basic consumption needs based on prevailing consumption trends in their geographic location.
The original methodology based this on the cost of food, clothing, shelter, and utilities (FCSU) as measured by the Consumer Expenditure Survey, then multiplied by 1.2 to account for other miscellaneous household expenses; changes introduced in 2020 separate telephone services from other utilities and add both internet services (FCSUti) as well as a number of additional in-kind transfers (Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC), and rental assistance were added to the previously included Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP)).
Anchored SPM Thresholds
SPMTHRESHANC12_19RYALT is calculated by first adjusting the 2012 SPM thresholds for inflation to the target year and then follows the usual SPM adjustments for family size and composition by applying the equivalence scale (SPMEQSCALE_19RYALT) and geographic differences in the cost of living (SPMGEOADJANC12_19RYALT). SPMPOVANC12_19RYALT is a dichotomous measure of poverty status using the anchored threshold.
SPMTHRESHANC12_19RYALT is one of three anchored variables created by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University as part of their Historical SPM project.
For user guidance on the Historical SPM and the calculation of SPMTHRESHANC12_19RYALT, please refer to the Historical SPM user note. The user note also provides an example to show the calculation of the SPM thresholds and geographic adjustment factor.

Comparability

This variable is comparable over time.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables