近年來由家戶的貧窮趨勢發現，老人家戶的貧窮率有下降的趨勢，檢視這些老人家戶的家庭資源發現，政府移轉所得是老人家庭資源的主要來源之一。是否老人家戶貧窮率的下降是因為政府移轉所得的挹注，使得老人貧窮率減緩？即成為本文的研究問題。本文試圖測量老人家戶的家庭資源，探討政府移轉所得的有、無差別，以期獲得政府移轉所得對於老人家戶的整體貧窮程度之影響。 研究發現，在1990至2000年中，政府移轉是老人單人戶、老人夫妻戶所仰賴，對於降低其貧窮率與貧窮強度有特定效果，這意謂著政府移轉有改善貧窮老人生活的困境。在所有的老人家戶類型中，老人單人戶得到最多的改善，不僅貧窮率下降最多、貧窮深度也下降最多，是1990至2000年來政策最具成效的家戶類型。

From recent household poverty trends, some researchers have found that the poverty rate for elderly households has been declining. After examining their family resources, we discovered that government income transfers were one of their major income sources. The focus of this study is to determine whether the decline in the elderly poverty rate was caused by the infusion of government income transfers. This study first measured the changes in the family resources of elderly households before and after the transfers, and then analyzed the differences to understand the effects of the transfers on the overall poverty rates among elderly households. One of this study's findings is that, from 1990 to 2000, government income transfers were relied on by single elderly person households and elderly couple households, and had certain effects on lowering their poverty rates and narrowing their poverty gaps. In other words, government income transfers did lessen the adversity of these elderly households in poverty. Among the types of elderly households, single elderly person household had the most visible improvement with the largest decrease in both the poverty rate and poverty gap; the effects of government income transfers were most prominent for this type of household in the period from 1990 to 2000.