[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lis/liswps/835.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Single Mothers’ Income in Twelve Rich Nations: Differences in Disadvantage across the Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Harkness
Abstract
Previous research has shown single mothers to be less well-off and at higher risk of poverty than mothers in couples. In this article, I extend current research by examining how single motherhood affects income at different quantiles of the distribution in twelve rich nations. Using harmonised data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), I first show how the distribution of single mothers’ income differs to that of couples with children. Using unconditional quantile treatment effect (QTE) models, I then assess the influence of single motherhood on income at different points of the distribution. I find that, in all countries, single motherhood is associated with large reductions in income across the distribution and that these gaps cannot be explained by differences in single and partnered mothers’ individual and family characteristics or employment. I also find striking variations across countries in the effect of single motherhood on income at different points of the distribution. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, single motherhood has a greater effect on income at the top of the income distribution than the bottom. In other countries, such as the United States, the reverse is true with the effect on income being largest at the bottom of the distribution. I conclude by discussing the role that employment and social policies may play in driving cross-country differences in the income gradient associated with single motherhood across the distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Harkness, 2022. "Single Mothers’ Income in Twelve Rich Nations: Differences in Disadvantage across the Distribution," LIS Working papers 835, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:835
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/835.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sergio Firpo, 2007. "Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Quantile Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 259-276, January.
    2. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    3. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    4. Sophie Moullin & Susan Harkness, 2021. "The Single Motherhood Penalty as a Gender Penalty," LIS Working papers 817, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Natasha V. Pilkauskas & Christina Cross, 2018. "Beyond the Nuclear Family: Trends in Children Living in Shared Households," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2283-2297, December.
    6. Zagel, Hannah & Van Lancker, Wim, 2022. "Family policies’ long-term effects on poverty: a comparative analysis of single and partnered mothers," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 166-181.
    7. Sergio Firpo & Cristine Pinto, 2016. "Identification and Estimation of Distributional Impacts of Interventions Using Changes in Inequality Measures," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 457-486, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Lane Kenworthy, 2015. "Do employment-conditional earnings subsidies work?," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/10, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    10. Nora Lustig, 2019. "The “Missing Rich” in Household Surveys: Causes and Correction Approaches," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 75, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    11. Nora Lustig, 2020. "The ``missing rich'' in household surveys: causes and correction approaches," Working Papers 520, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    12. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais, 2017. "Gender Inequality and Economic Development: Fertility, Education and Norms," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 180-209, April.
    13. Wim Van Lancker & Joris Ghysels & Bea Cantillon, 2012. "An international comparison of the impact of child benefits on poverty outcomes for single mothers," Working Papers 1203, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    14. 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.
    15. González, Libertad, 2004. "Single Mothers and Work," IZA Discussion Papers 1097, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Richard Dickens & David T Ellwood, 2003. "Child Poverty in Britain and the United States," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(488), pages 219-239, June.
    17. David Brady & Rebekah Burroway, 2012. "Targeting, Universalism, and Single-Mother Poverty: A Multilevel Analysis Across 18 Affluent Democracies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 719-746, May.
    18. Sergio P. Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2018. "Decomposing Wage Distributions Using Recentered Influence Function Regressions," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-40, May.
    19. Fernando Rios-Avila, 2020. "Recentered influence functions (RIFs) in Stata: RIF regression and RIF decomposition," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(1), pages 51-94, March.
    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. Harkness, Susan, 2022. "Single mothers’ income in twelve rich nations: differences in disadvantage across the distribution," ISER Working Paper Series 2022-06, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Susan Harkness, 2022. "Single Mothers’ Income in Twelve Rich Countries: Differences in Disadvantage across the Distribution," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 164-187, July.
    3. 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.
    4. Mathias Silva, 2023. "Parametric models of income distributions integrating misreporting and non-response mechanisms," AMSE Working Papers 2311, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    5. Khadija Bchi & Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2024. "A modeling approach to decomposing changes in health concentration curves," Working Papers 2403E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Abagna, Matthew Amalitinga & Hornok, Cecília & Mulyukova, Alina, 2024. "Place-based policies and household wealth in Africa," Kiel Working Papers 2263, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. Hope Bodenschatz & Gerald Eric Daniels Jr. & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2023. "Decomposing Lifetime-Earnings Differences between White, Black, and Hispanic Families," Working Papers 23-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    10. Masca, Simona-Gabriela & Chis, Diana-Maria, 2023. "Distributional implications of informal economy in the EU countries: Accounting for the spread of tax evasion benefits and cultural characteristics," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    11. Sophie Moullin & Susan Harkness, 2021. "The Single Motherhood Penalty as a Gender Penalty," LIS Working papers 817, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Roman Bobilev & Anne Boschini & Jesper Roine, 2020. "Women in the Top of the Income Distribution: What Can We Learn From LIS-Data?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 63-107, March.
    13. Biegert, Thomas & Brady, David & Hipp, Lena, 2022. "Cross-National Variation in the Relationship between Welfare Generosity and Single Mother Employment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 702(1), pages 37-54.
    14. Holly Monti & Martha Stinson & Lori Zehr, 2020. "How Long Do Early Career Decisions Follow Women? The Impact of Employer History on the Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 189-232, September.
    15. Bartels, Charlotte & Waldenström, Daniel, 2021. "Inequality and top incomes," GLO Discussion Paper Series 959, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Varvello Juan Cruz & Camusso Jorge & Navarro Ana Inés, 2023. "Does Teleworking Affect The Labor Income Distribution? Empirical Evidence From South American Countries," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4698, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    17. 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.
    18. Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna & Xiaojun Song & Qi Xu, 2022. "Covariate distribution balance via propensity scores," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(6), pages 1093-1120, September.
    19. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Does Biology Drive Child Penalties? Evidence from Biological and Adoptive Families," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 183-198, June.
    20. Cécile Couharde & Rémi Generoso, 2024. "Assessing the Impact of National Air Quality Standards on Agricultural Land Values: Insights from Corn and Soybean Regions," Working Papers hal-04503777, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:835. 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.