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Universal Child Allowances in 14 Middle Income Countries: Options for Policy and Poverty Reduction

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Evans
  • Alejandra Hidalgo
  • Mei Wang
Abstract
This paper uses data from 14 Middle Income Countries in the Luxembourg Income Study database to examine the position of children in the income distributions, and to calculate child poverty prevalence, to assess how far children receive transfers from state social protection systems compared to other age-groups. The results show that children are disproportionately concentrated in the lower quintiles and have higher child poverty prevalence than for adults, but receive lower social protection transfers on a per-capita basis across all 14 countries. The analysis then moves to consider how the introduction of a simulated ‘universal child allowance’ based on a new allocation of 1 percent of GDP across all 14 countries could be designed to achieve both universal and targeted, anti-poverty, outcomes. Different versions of simple static and purely arithmetic micro-simulations are used to examine how a universal approach that allocates transfers to all children aged 0-17 can be adapted to optimise poverty reduction – both for child and general poverty. These simulations examine changes to poverty reduction moving from household to individual level allocation, weighting higher levels of transfers to younger children and of ‘taxing back’ universal transfers to those with incomes in the highest three quintiles. The findings show that individual allocation and ‘taxing back’ from higher income quintiles have the largest poverty reduction effect across all 14 countries, while weighting transfers to younger children has different poverty reduction effects between countries – depending on age composition and co-residence. The results are discussed in the light of debates on ‘targeting’ verses ‘universal’ approaches to social protection.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Evans & Alejandra Hidalgo & Mei Wang, 2018. "Universal Child Allowances in 14 Middle Income Countries: Options for Policy and Poverty Reduction," LIS Working papers 738, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:738
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank Ellis & Stephen Devereux & Phillip White, 2009. "Social Protection in Africa," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13393.
    2. Emily Nell & Martin Evans & Janet Gornick, 2016. "Child Poverty in Middle-Income Countries," LIS Working papers 666, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Daniele Checchi & Andrej Cupak & Teresa Munzi & Janet Gornick, 2018. "Empirical challenges comparing inequality across countries: The case of middle-income countries from the LIS database," WIDER Working Paper Series 149, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Martin Evans, 2018. "Simulating policy options for universal child allowances in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-145, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Martin Evans, 2018. "Simulating policy options for universal child allowances in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series 145, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Daniele Checchi & Andrej Cupak & Teresa Munzi & Janet Gornick, 2018. "Empirical challenges comparing inequality across countries: The case of middle-income countries from the LIS database," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-149, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Piotr Paradowski & Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Inequality, Poverty and Child Benefits: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," LIS Working papers 799, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Daniele Checchi & Andrej Cupak & Teresa Munzi & Janet Gornick, 2018. "Empirical challenges comparing inequality across countries," LIS Working papers 756, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Elena-Madalina ZAMFIR (AVRAM) & Georgiana BALABAN & Alina Ionela ARSANI, 2022. "Reducing Child Poverty In Romania: The Role Of Universal Child Benefit," Romanian Journal of Economics, Institute of National Economy, vol. 54(1(63)), pages 34-57, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    -poverty; social policy; children;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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