IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lis/liswps/873.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The United States’ Record-Low Child Poverty Rate in International and Historical Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Zachary Parolin
  • Stefano Filauro

Abstract

In 2021, the federal government of the United States (US) expanded a set of income transfers that led to strong reductions in child poverty. This research note uses micro-data from more than 50 countries, and US data spanning more than 50 years, to place the 2021 child poverty rate in historical and international perspective. We demonstrate that whether using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), relative poverty measures, or an absolute poverty measure, the US child poverty rate in 2021 was at its lowest level since at least 1967. The US tax and transfer system reduced the 2021 SPM child poverty rate by more than 75 percent relative to the pre-tax/transfer child poverty rate, three times greater than its mean reduction effect between 1967-2019. Internationally, the policy changes improved the US’s standing from having a relative poverty rate twice that of Germany’s in 2019 to the same as Germany’s in 2021. Moreover, the US tax and transfer system progressed from reducing child poverty at less than half the rate of Norway in 2019 to a rate comparable with Norway in 2021. However, the US’s success was temporary: after the expiration of the 2021 income provisions, the child poverty rate doubled and returned to being higher than in most other high-income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Zachary Parolin & Stefano Filauro, 2023. "The United States’ Record-Low Child Poverty Rate in International and Historical Perspective," LIS Working papers 873, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:873
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/873.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wen Hao Chen & Miles Corak, 2005. "Child Poverty and Changes in Child Poverty in Rich Countries since 1990," LIS Working papers 405, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. David Brady & Ryan Finnigan & Sabine H bgen, 2017. "Rethinking the risks of poverty: a framework for analyzing prevalences and penalties," LIS Working papers 693, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zachary Parolin, 2019. "The Effect of Benefit Underreporting on Estimates of Poverty in the United States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 869-898, July.
    2. Bruch, Sarah K. & van der Naald, Joseph & Gornick, Janet C., 2022. "Poverty Reduction through Federal and State Policy Mechanisms: Variation Over Time and Across the U.S. States," SocArXiv jz5xp, Center for Open Science.
    3. Zachary Van Winkle & Emanuela Struffolino, 2018. "When working isn’t enough: Family demographic processes and in-work poverty across the life course in the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(12), pages 365-380.
    4. Manuel Schechtl, 2020. "Taxation of Families and “Families of Taxation”? Inequality Modification Between Family Types Across Welfare States," LIS Working papers 800, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. David Brady & Ryan Finnigan & Sabine H bgen, 2022. "The Relationship Between Single Motherhood, Employment and Poverty," LIS Working papers 824, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Corak, Miles, 2005. "Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty in the Rich Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 1579, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Juho Härkönen & Marika Jalovaara & Eevi Lappalainen & Anneli Miettinen, 2023. "Double Disadvantage in a Nordic Welfare State: A Demographic Analysis of the Single-Parent Employment Gap in Finland, 1987–2018," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Tamm, Marcus, 2008. "Does money buy higher schooling?: Evidence from secondary school track choice in Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 536-545, October.
    9. Wolfe, Joseph D. & Thomeer, Mieke Beth & Reczek, Rin, 2023. "Age at first birth and women's midlife health: Cohort and race differences across the 20th century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    10. Thomas Biegert & David Brady & Lena Hipp, 2022. "Cross-National Variation in the Relationship between Welfare Generosity and Single Mother Employment," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 37-54, July.
    11. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Carpenter, Christopher S. & Frank, Jeff & Huffman, Matt L., 2019. "Gay glass ceilings: Sexual orientation and workplace authority in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 167-180.
    12. Nolan, Brian & Azzollini, Leo & Breen, Richard, 2023. "Changing Household Structures, Household Employment, and Poverty Trends in Rich Countries," INET Oxford Working Papers 2023-29, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    13. Zagel, Hannah & Hübgen, Sabine & Nieuwenhuis, Rense, 2021. "Diverging Trends in Single-Mother Poverty across Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom: Toward a Comprehensive Explanatory Framework," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Advance A, pages 1-1.
    14. Rense Nieuwenhuis, 2022. "Single Parents Competing in a Dual-Earner Society: Social Policy to Level the Playing Field," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 114-128, July.
    15. David Rothwell & Timothy Ottusch & Jennifer K. Finders, 2018. "Asset Poverty Among Children: A Cross-national Study of Poverty Risk," LWS Working papers 29, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    16. Tomás Cano & Pablo Gracia, 2022. "The Gendered Effects of Divorce on Mothers’ and Fathers’ Time with Children and Children’s Developmental Activities: A Longitudinal Study," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 1277-1313, December.
    17. Harkness, Susan, 2022. "The accumulation of disadvantage: how motherhood and relationship breakdown influence married and single mothers’ economic outcomes," ISER Working Paper Series 2022-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    18. Parolin, Zachary & Gornick, Janet C., 2021. "Pathways toward Inclusive Income Growth: A Comparative Decomposition of National Growth Profiles," SocArXiv rsxz6, Center for Open Science.
    19. Fabrizio Bernardi & Risto Conte Keivabu, 2023. "Poor air at school and educational inequalities by family socioeconomic status," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-014, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    20. Rense Nieuwenhuis, 2022. "Single Parents Competing in a Dual-Earner Society: Leveling the Playing Field," LIS Working papers 825, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:873. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Piotr Paradowski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lisprlu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.