ABSTRACT

Lower income households are at risk for material hardship, particularly amidst the economic fallout of COVID-19. Where one lives (e.g., suburb, small town) may affect this risk due to variable access to resources, yet the evidence is mixed concerning the influence of place. We used a pooled, national cross-sectional sample of 66,046 lower-income tax filers to examine differences in material hardship in rural, small town, micropolitan, and urban areas. Controlling only for standard demographic variables, hardship risk appears higher in non-urban areas, yet these differences disappear after controlling for financial characteristics such as liquid assets and home ownership.

摘要

低收入家庭面临物质困难的风险，尤其是在 COVID-19 的经济影响下。一个人居住的地方（例如，郊区、小镇）可能会由于资源获取方式的不同而影响这种风险，但关于地点影响的证据却是混杂的。我们使用了 66,046 名低收入纳税申报人的全国性横断面汇总样本来检验农村、小城镇、小城市和城市地区的物质困难差异。仅控制标准人口变量，非城市地区的困难风险似乎更高，但在控制流动资产和房屋所有权等财务特征后，这些差异消失了。