Topics: Economics and Personal Finances, Socioeconomic Class. 1  Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Research Center. 2  Rakesh Kochhar is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center.
In the United States, the Census Bureau determines who is poor using an economic poverty measure, by calculating official poverty estimates using a set of dollar-value thresholds, or minimum amount of income needed to meet basic needs, that vary by family size and composition.
Once a target behavior has been identified, it must be carefully and completely defined in observable and measurable terms. A good definition is objective, clear, and discriminative between what is and what is not an example of the target behavior. Well-written target behavior definitions are necessary in order to accurately and reliably measure behavior and to aggregate, compare, and interpret data.