Publication
Title
The impact of pensions, transfers and taxes on child poverty in Europe : the role of size, pro-poorness and child orientation
Author
Abstract
We assess the impact of redistributive policy on child poverty across 29 European welfare states, using EU SILC 20052012. We distinguish between spending on pensions, spending on other cash transfers and taxation. For each of these instruments of redistribution, we further distinguish three features: size, pro-poorness and targeting towards households with children. Pensions are generally neglected in analyses on child poverty, but are relevant through the presence of two, partially offsetting, forces. Increased pension spending weakens the relative income position of children, but pensions also substantially contribute to the household income of children from multigenerational households. This ambiguous result signals a challenge: while reductions in pension spending may be desirable in the long run in several European welfare states, policymakersespecially in Southern and Eastern Europeshould be aware that this not only directly involves income losses for the elderly, but also for a non-negligible share of (predominantly poor) children.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Socio-economic review. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : Oxford university press , 2017
ISSN
1475-1461
DOI
10.1093/SER/MWW045
Volume/pages
15 :4 (2017) , p. 745-775
ISI
000418239400003
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 20.01.2017
Last edited 09.10.2023
To cite this reference