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Mollie Orshansky (January 9, 1915 – December 18, 2006) was an American
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and
statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may w ...
who, in 1963–65, developed the ''Orshansky Poverty Thresholds'', which are used in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
as a measure of the income that a household must not exceed to be counted as
poor Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse
.


Life and career

Orshansky was born January 9, 1915, the third of six daughters of Samuel and Fannie Orshansky, Jewish immigrants who settled in the
Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
after leaving Ukraine. She attended
Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there ...
, and received an A.B. in mathematics and statistics from
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admin ...
in 1935. Orshansky continued graduate studies in economics and statistics at the Department of Agriculture Graduate School at
American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was cha ...
. In 1939, Orshansky became a research clerk with the Children's Bureau; working on
biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...
studies of child health, growth, and nutrition. In January 1942, as a statistician in the New York City Department of Health, she worked on a survey of the incidence of, and therapies for,
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...
. In 1945, Orshansky moved to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
; where she spent the next thirteen years as a family economist, director of the Program Statistics Division, and a food economist. In 1958, Orshansky joined the
Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify f ...
as a social science research analyst in the Office of Research and Statistics. In this capacity, she was responsible for analytical studies to measure income adequacy, family welfare and patterns of family income. In 1963, Orshansky developed the official measurement of poverty used by the U.S. government (''see''
Poverty in the United States In the United States, poverty has both social and political implications. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty. Some of the many causes include income inequality, inflation, unemployment, debt traps and poor education.Western, B ...
). She used the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet as the basis for a cost-of-living estimate; and to calculate a
cost of living Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a cer ...
for families of different sizes and composition. Her interest in the subject came from personal experience. "She knew first-hand what it was like to grow up poor… as she grew up, she became quite familiar with the experience of having to forego one small purchase in order to have the money for something else. She later summed up this aspect of her early life by saying, ‘If I write about the poor, I don’t need a good imagination — I have a good memory. In 1976, Orshansky received the Distinguished Service Award in recognition for her leadership in creating the first nationally accepted measurements of income adequacy and applying them to public policy. Her retirement came in 1982.Mollie Orshansky
Social Security History on ssa.gov
Orshansky was hospitalized in the autumn of 2001, and a legal battle ensued over her care. Orshansky was taken to New York, according to her wishes, but a judge who had appointed a guardian tried to compel her return to Washington DC. The judge was overruled on appeal, and Orshansky died in Manhattan several years later.


Popular culture

Orshansky's development of the Poverty Thresholds was a plot element in an episode of the United States television program ''
The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
''. In the episode " The Indians in the Lobby," the federal government was considering a reclassification of poverty that would have made use of a new formula to add four million additional citizens to the category. Orshansky, a native-born U.S. citizen, was characterized incorrectly in the show as an Eastern European immigrant who created a United States "cost of living formula ... based on life in Poland during the Cold War."Aaron Sorkin
The Indians in the Lobby
West Wing Transcripts.


References


External links


A Chronological Bibliography of Mollie Orshansky’s Publications (Including Congressional Testimony)
Compiled and annotated by Gordon M. Fisher, at hhs.gov * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orshansky, Mollie 1915 births 2006 deaths Hunter College High School alumni Hunter College alumni Economists from New York (state) American women economists American statisticians Women statisticians American University alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Mathematicians from New York (state) 20th-century American economists Scientists from the Bronx 20th-century American women 21st-century American women