As reported in [their 2015 book](http://www.twodollarsaday.com/), Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin found that “the number of households living on $2 or less in cash income per person per day in a given month increased from about 636,000 in 1996 [first year of welfare reform] to about 1.65 million in mid-2011, a growth of 159.1 percent.” Using a similar analytic method with a different set of data, Scott Winship of the Manhattan Institute finds that the number of children living below the $2/day mark began to rise before, not after, welfare reform in 1996, suggesting that the reforms may have worsened rather than caused the trend.

More about New analysis counters Shaefer’s finding that households living on $2/day/person rose post welfare reform >