جهان گرایی در محاصره؟ بررسی ارتباط بین هدف قرار دادن، منافع کودک و فقر کودکان در سراسر 26 کشور

The long-standing wisdom that universally designed benefits outperform targeted benefits in terms of poverty reduction has come under siege. Recent empirical studies tend to find that targeting is not necessarily associated anymore with lower levels of poverty reduction. In this study, we investigate for a broad set of European countries (1) the relationship between child benefits and child poverty reduction; (2) whether a universal or targeted approach is more effective in reducing child poverty; and (3) the causal mechanisms explaining the link between (1) and (2). In doing so, we take into account the general characteristics of the child benefit system, the size of the redistributive budget and the generosity of benefit levels. In contrast to previous studies, we construct an indicator of targeting that captures the design instead of the outcomes of child benefit systems. We find that targeting towards lower incomes is associated with higher levels of child poverty reduction, conditional on the direction of targeting and the characteristics of the benefit system.

In times of economic hardship and fiscal consolidation, governments are in dire need of finding cost-efficient ways to combat rising child poverty rates (European Commission, 2013a and TARKI, 2010). Earlier research for developed welfare states has shown that child benefits play an important role in reducing child poverty. In this paper, we aim to reinvigorate our knowledge on the impact of child benefits on child poverty, in particular how child benefit systems should be designed in order to yield the most beneficial results in terms of poverty reduction.