New paper: “Why Has Poverty Declined for Widows?”

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new Issue in Brief:

“Why Has Poverty Declined for Widows?”

by Alicia H. Munnell, Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher, and Alice Zulkarnain

The brief’s key findings are:

• Since the mid-1990s, the poverty rate for widows has dropped sharply.
• Potential reasons include rising levels of education and work experience for women generally and a higher marriage rate among women with more education.
• The findings show that, so far, the drop in widows’ poverty has primarily been driven by the general increase in women’s education and work experience.
• Going forward, the poverty rate should continue to fall not only because of education and work patterns but also because of marriage selection.
• Despite the progress, widows will remain at greater risk of poverty than married women.

This brief is available here.