Children, Poverty, and Public Policy: A Cross-National Perspective

This paper assesses child poverty in 24 high- and middle-income countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database. We assess poverty patterns using both relative and absolute poverty standards, to account for variation in income levels both within and across countries. We analyze poverty outcomes based on (i) market income (income “prior to” taxes and transfers), (ii) income from the market plus “family transfers”, and (iii) total household income. This disaggregation gives us a window on the extent to which – and where – states use public policies to reduce market-generated poverty among children. To flesh out our analyses of poverty reduction based on microdata, we shift vantage points and take a brief look at the association between family benefits (both cash and tax breaks, using macro-data from OECD) and child poverty reduction (due to redistribution, based on the LIS microdata). After assessing poverty and poverty reduction among all children, we consider two crucial risk factors that, within countries, shape children’s likelihood of being poor: family structure and parents' employment.