This PhD thesis traverses an array of research domains, predominantly focusing on deciphering and tackling societal issues through a socioeconomic perspective. Nevertheless, it is essential to regard each chapter as an independent study, as they engage with distinct research questions, necessitating diverse datasets and methodologies. Chapter 1 – Understanding trends and drivers of urban poverty in American cities. Published in Empirical Economics. Urban poverty arises from the uneven distribution of poor populations across neighborhoods of a city. Over a span of four decades, we critically examine the trends and factors driving urban poverty in American cities. Our approach involves the utilization of several urban poverty indices that account for the incidence, distribution, and segregation of poverty across census tracts. Built on solid normative foundations, these indices provide a more detailed understanding than the concentrated poverty index. We analyze tract-level data to determine how demographics, housing, education, employment, and income distribution impact the levels and changes in urban poverty. Through a decomposition analysis, we differentiate between the effects of changes in the distribution of these factors across cities and changes in their correlation with urban poverty. Our findings highlight the significant role of demographics and income distribution in shaping urban poverty, a result that markedly differs when using concentrated poverty indices. Chapter 2 – Urban poverty and the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic: Evidence from American cities. This study empirically explores the extent to which urban poverty in American cities influenced the propagation of COVID-19 during the pandemic's initial phase and the impact of mobility restriction measures on this dynamic. Leveraging ACS data, along with mobility and confirmed case data, and accounting for potential bias from measurement errors and unobserved confounders, we ascertain that an increase in urban poverty by one standard deviation ...