Gleeson Library: Income Inequality and Poverty: Resources

Data

PolicyMap
Thousands of U.S. data indicators for demographic and socioeconomic analysis. PolicyMap data can be presented as maps, tables, charts and pre-built reports that can be incorporated into papers, presentations, blogs and websites. In addition, students can upload unlimited amounts of their own address-based data, and can share these maps with others.
An online (no software installation needed) U.S. national data and mapping tool and analytics platform with multidisciplinary applications for college students and faculty. It is used in undergraduate and graduate curriculum and research related to social sciences, urban studies, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration, public health, policy and political science, education, business, economics, statistics, and geography, among others. Users can leverage thousands of U.S. data indicators in PolicyMap to perform demographic and socioeconomic analysis, from a neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, as well as create custom regions, for their research and studies.

PolicyMap’s data indicators accessible via easy to use menus organized in categories including demographics, income and spending, housing, lending, quality of life, economy, education, health, federal guidelines, and analytics. Data can be viewed on a census block or census tract level in many cases, city, county, zip, state, US, as well as by congressional district, school district, state house and state senate districts.
Social Explorer
Create a personal account, or use USF guest account information: email: guest@usfca.edu password: guest Social Explorer provides quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. The easy-to-use web interface lets users create maps and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change.
In addition to its comprehensive data resources, Social Explorer offers features and tools to meet the needs of demography experts and novices alike. From research libraries to classrooms to government agencies to corporations to the front page of the New York Times, Social Explorer helps the public engage with society and science.

DATA RESOURCES
Access current and historical demographic data with ease:
The entire US Census from 1790 to 2010.
The entire American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2012.
All annual updates from the American Community Survey.
InfoGroup data on religious congregations in the United States for 2009 and 2010, including maps for counties and special census areas, as well as point maps of the actual congregation locations.
The Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) from 1980 to 2010.
Carbon Emissions Data for 2002 from the Vulcan Project.
Social Explorer includes over 40 billion data elements, 500,000 variables, and more than 25,000 interactive maps.
Stay current with the latest data from the US Census Bureau, which is added to the site as soon as it is released.
Browse full source documentation for all reports and maps, as well as the source and computation information for every variable.

TOOLS & FEATURES
Visualize data with customizable, user-friendly maps, allowing unparalleled exploration of demographic and social change, revealing the patterns buried in raw numbers.
Create thematic and interactive maps that explore all historical and modern US census data across the centuries and even down to street level detail (where available).
Locate geographies with the address find tool.
Export, save, and print maps and reports for professional-looking reports, presentations, and graphics. High-resolution images are available and any presentation can be exported directly to PowerPoint.
Create multi-map presentations with the interactive slideshow tool for in-depth comparisons and story-telling.
Graph and chart data with easy on-screen tools to investigate the data and communicate your findings.
Save projects in your personal MyExplorer account for archiving, collaboration, and more.
Share your creations in presentations and online. Maps can be shared through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and embedded in websites.
Create data reports at all geographic levels, including state, county, census tract, block group, zip code, and census place (where the data exist).
Download data to a variety of file formats for use with your favorite statistical package. Our reports automatically calculate aggregates, percentages, inflation adjustments, and medians to save time and eliminate errors.
No software to install or maintain, making it hassle-free for librarians and users. The site works entirely on the web and provides many basic GIS and data manipulation functions.
An ideal teaching resource that employs an engaging visual approach to demographic information for courses across the social sciences, and trusted by Pearson Publishing as a leader in social science online learning.

On-Campus Link

Gini Index
The Gini Index represents the income distribution of a nation's residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality.
Inequality Data and Statistics
from Inequality.org, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
California Poverty Measure
The California Poverty Measure tracks the full range of necessary expenditures, adjusts for geographic differences in housing costs, and includes food stamps and other non-cash benefits as resources available to poor families. The CPM reveals which groups and counties have the highest poverty rates and whether California's safety net is successfully reducing poverty. The CPM is jointly produced by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI) and the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

Data.census.gov
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. It replaces the American FactFinder website, which was retired in 2020.
The earliest data on data.census.gov will be from the 2000 Census. American Community Survey (ACS) Data will not be available prior to 2010 with the exception of the 2009 Comparison Profiles. All ACS data, including 2005 to 2009 data, are available in the Census Data API.

For detailed information about the new platform see this guide.

Organizations and Think Tanks

All in Alameda County
Bay Area Council Economic Institute
Brookings Institute - Income Inequality and Social Mobility
Center for Poverty Research - UC Davis
The Economic Hardship Reporting Project
Inequality.org
Inequality.org is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
Public Policy Institute of California - Economy
Relational Poverty Network
Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
University of Texas Inequality Project
Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Journal Articles

EconLit
EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, is the world's foremost source of references to economic literature with citations and abstracts to economic research dating back to 1886.
It provides links to full-text articles in all fields of economics, including capital markets, country studies, econometrics, economic forecasting, environmental economics, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, urban economics, and much more.

EconLit uses the JEL classification system and controlled vocabulary of keywords to index six types of records: journal articles, books, collective volume articles, dissertations, working papers, and full-text book reviews from the Journal of Economic Literature. These sources bring the total records available in the database to more than 1.2 million.

On-Campus Link
Political Science Complete
Political Science Complete (PSC) provides full text for more than 520 journals, and indexing and abstracts for over 2,900 titles, (including top-ranked scholarly journals), many of which are unique to the product.
PSC has a worldwide focus, reflecting the globalization of contemporary political discourse. The database also features over 340 full-text reference books and monographs, and over 36,000 full-text conference papers, including those of the International Political Science Association. PSC includes a subject-specific thesaurus with over 17,500 terms (7,366 preferred and 10,175 non-preferred terms), to provide subject searching guidance to researchers.

On-Campus Link
SocINDEX with Full Text
SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The database features more than 2.1 million records with subject headings from a 20,000+ term sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers.
SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for more than 860 journals dating back to 1908. This database also includes full text for more than 830 books and monographs, and full text for over 16,800 conference papers.

On-Campus Link

News Articles

New York Times - Income Inequality Articles

Access World News
Through nearly 7000 news sources, find diverse global, local, regional, and national perspectives on topics related to controversial issues, the environment, health, education, science, the arts, literature, business, economics, criminal justice, and more.
Sources include a variety of current and retrospective news media: newspapers, newswires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, periodicals, and web-only content.

Also included are the following Access Modules: Business News, U.S. Newswires, Military, Government, and Defense, and Acceda Noticias. Content is easily searched and sorted through an intuitive, map-based interface.

Access World News includes many California News Sources including the current San Francisco Chronicle.

On Campus Link
Nexis Uni
Replaces LexisNexis Academic.

More than 15,000 news, business, and legal sources from LexisNexis—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
National and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language sources.

U.S. Federal and state case law, codes, regulations, legal news, law reviews, and international legal information.

Shepard’s Citations for all U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1789.

Business news journals, company financial information, SEC filings and reports, and industry and market news.

On Campus Link

Books and Reports

Ignacio: Library Catalog
The library catalog lets you search across the holdings of Gleeson Library and Zief Law Library, including books, videos, and other materials.

Books on Inequality
compiled by Inequality.org

Videos

Inequality Videos
compiled by Inequality.org

Income Inequality and Poverty

Data

Organizations and Think Tanks

Journal Articles

News Articles

Books and Reports

Videos

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