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Child Poverty in Upper-Income Countries: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Jäntti
  • Janet Gornick
Abstract
We draw on LIS's various resources to sketch a portrait of child poverty in upper-income countries. We first summarize past LIS-based scholarship on child poverty, highlighting studies that seek to explain cross-national variation in child poverty levels. Our empirical sections focus on child poverty in 13 upper-income countries. We begin with a descriptive overview of poverty among all households and among those with children, presenting multiple poverty measures (relative and absolute, pre- and post- taxes and transfers) and reporting the magnitude of poverty reduction due to state programs. We focus on within-country associations between child poverty and three important characteristics: family type, parents' educational attainment, and parents' attachment to paid work. Our main conclusions include: (a) child poverty rates vary markedly across the mostly high-income countries included in the LIS data archive; (b) child poverty rates shift over time in diverse ways; (c) within countries, family demography and parents' labor market engagement are the main factors that shape children's likelihood of living in a poor household; (d) taxes and transfers powerfully shape the economic wellbeing of children in all countries; (e) the factors that explain poverty variation within countries are not the same as those that explain poverty variation across countries; the latter are mainly institutional, including both labor market structures and policy configurations.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Jäntti & Janet Gornick, 2009. "Child Poverty in Upper-Income Countries: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study," LIS Working papers 509, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:509
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mia Hakovirta, 2010. "Child Maintenance and Child Poverty: A Comparative Analysis," LIS Working papers 555, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Rainer Eppel & Thomas Leoni, 2011. "New Social Risks Affecting Children. A Survey of Risk Determinants and Child Outcomes in the EU," WIFO Working Papers 386, WIFO.
    3. Janet C. Gornick & Laurie C. Maldonado & Amanda Sheely, 2022. "Effective Policies for Single-Parent Families and Prospects for Policy Reforms in the United States: Concluding Reflections," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 236-251, July.
    4. Laurie C. Maldonado & Rense Nieuwenhuis, 2014. "Family Policies and Single Parent Poverty in 18 OECD Countries, 1978-2008," LIS Working papers 622, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Timothy Smeeding & Jonathan Gershuny & Karen Robson & Coady Wing, 2009. "Income Poverty and Income Support for Minority and Immigrant Children in Rich Countries," LIS Working papers 527, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Antonella D’Agostino & Caterina Giusti & Antoanneta Potsi, 2018. "Gender and Children’s Wellbeing: Four Mediterranean Countries in Perspective," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(5), pages 1649-1676, October.

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