Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union

Combating child poverty is desirable to ensure equality of opportunities across children, as well as fostering the sustainability of the societal well-being for future generations. This paper focuses on the study of child poverty in the 28 Member States of the European Union over the period 2008–201...

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Main Authors: Sánchez, Ángeles, Navarro Hernández, María Victoria
Format: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10835/10244
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052725
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author Sánchez, Ángeles
Navarro Hernández, María Victoria
author_facet Sánchez, Ángeles
Navarro Hernández, María Victoria
author_sort Sánchez, Ángeles
collection DSpace
description Combating child poverty is desirable to ensure equality of opportunities across children, as well as fostering the sustainability of the societal well-being for future generations. This paper focuses on the study of child poverty in the 28 Member States of the European Union over the period 2008–2018. We analyse the relationship between child poverty and government social expenditure by controlling it with tax structure (ratio direct taxes over indirect taxes), economic growth and socio-demographic characteristics. For that, we rely on panel data methodology. This paper has verified that the effectiveness of the government social spending programmes to reduce child poverty also depends on the progressiveness of the country’s tax structure. Government spending on health and education programmes could be more effective in reducing child poverty in Member States with less progressive tax structure, provided they reached the average level of public spending for the whole of the European Union. By contrast, a positive relationship between child poverty and government social protection spending regardless of the tax structure of countries was found. In this case, the underlying forces that lead to less effectiveness of social protection programmes are also stronger in the less progressive Member States.
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spelling oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-102442023-04-12T19:04:29Z Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union Sánchez, Ángeles Navarro Hernández, María Victoria public policy child poverty government social spending tax structure welfare state education health social protection economic growth panel data estimation Combating child poverty is desirable to ensure equality of opportunities across children, as well as fostering the sustainability of the societal well-being for future generations. This paper focuses on the study of child poverty in the 28 Member States of the European Union over the period 2008–2018. We analyse the relationship between child poverty and government social expenditure by controlling it with tax structure (ratio direct taxes over indirect taxes), economic growth and socio-demographic characteristics. For that, we rely on panel data methodology. This paper has verified that the effectiveness of the government social spending programmes to reduce child poverty also depends on the progressiveness of the country’s tax structure. Government spending on health and education programmes could be more effective in reducing child poverty in Member States with less progressive tax structure, provided they reached the average level of public spending for the whole of the European Union. By contrast, a positive relationship between child poverty and government social protection spending regardless of the tax structure of countries was found. In this case, the underlying forces that lead to less effectiveness of social protection programmes are also stronger in the less progressive Member States. 2021-03-15T09:07:16Z 2021-03-15T09:07:16Z 2021-03-03 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2071-1050 http://hdl.handle.net/10835/10244 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052725 en https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2725 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess MDPI
spellingShingle public policy
child poverty
government social spending
tax structure
welfare state
education
health
social protection
economic growth
panel data estimation
Sánchez, Ángeles
Navarro Hernández, María Victoria
Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title_full Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title_fullStr Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title_full_unstemmed Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title_short Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union
title_sort public policies of welfare state and child poverty in the european union
topic public policy
child poverty
government social spending
tax structure
welfare state
education
health
social protection
economic growth
panel data estimation
url http://hdl.handle.net/10835/10244
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052725
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