CPHHS Assistant Professor David Rothwell’s article on asset poverty in Canada was selected as best journal article of 2018 by the International Journal of Social Welfare.
The article, “The prevalence and composition of asset poverty in Canada,” was co-authored by Jennifer Robson from Carleton University. A household is considered asset poor if its assets (financial assets or net worth, taken separately) are insufficient to maintain well‐being at a low‐income threshold for three months. The researchers provide the first national‐level estimates of asset poverty for Canada, using the 1999, 2005 and 2012 cycles of the Survey of Financial Security, and compare these estimates with income poverty. The analysis gives new insight into economic insecurity by showing asset poverty rates are consistently two to three times higher than income poverty rates. Other key findings include: age and geography shape the risk for asset poverty; education can shape both income and asset poverty; immigration places Canadians at a relatively higher risk of income poverty but not asset poverty.
David was also invited to be an Annie E. Casey Foundation Rural Poverty Research Fellow. The fellowship, organized by the Rural Policy Research Institute, will involve structured collaboration and mentoring with senior researchers and policy/program practitioners through a series of conference calls, a webinar, and face-to-face interaction in Jackson, Mississippi, this spring.