Child Benefit and Child Poverty

CEFIR Working Paper No. WP/00/03

Posted: 12 Jan 2001

See all articles by Irina Denisova

Irina Denisova

Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR); New Economic School (NES)

Stanislav Kolenikov

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Department of Statistics

Ksenia Yudaeva

CEFIR, Centre for Economic and Financial Research

Date Written: October 2000

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the effects of changes in policy of child benefit provisions on child poverty. In particular, we examine whether the introduction of means-testing schemes in the regions has improved targeting of child benefits. We test whether the probability of being paid depends negatively or positively on income, and whether this probability increased between 1996 and 1998 for the poor part of the population. In addition to probability analysis, we use direct poverty analysis, i.e., we decompose the change in poverty into changes in child benefits, and other factors. We carry out a comparative analysis among three groups of regions which differ with respect to the approach chosen to identify the needy families with children. We pay special attention to the relative efficiency of a variety of means-testing schemes. We find that the probability of getting paid conditional on being poor improved between 1996 and 1998, particularly in the regions which introduced a simple income test. However, the overall impact of the changes in child benefit provision on child poverty was negative, i.e., it contributed to poverty increase, with the decrease in payments being the main cause of the trend. Our paper also finds that as a result of transfer of responsibilities of child benefit payments from the mother's employer to the social welfare offices, the correlations between payment probability and wage arrears weakened substantially. At the same time the relation between the presence of the social welfare office in the area of residence and the probability of getting paid has weakened as well. We conclude from these results that the overall institutional structure of the child benefits payments system improved during the period under study.

JEL Classification: H2, H7, I3

Suggested Citation

Denisova, Irina and Kolenikov, Stanislav and Yudaeva, Ksenia, Child Benefit and Child Poverty (October 2000). CEFIR Working Paper No. WP/00/03, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=254606

Irina Denisova (Contact Author)

Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) ( email )

47 Nakhimovsky Prospect, Office #720
117418 Moscow
Russia
+7 095 332 4083 (Phone)

New Economic School (NES)

100A Novaya Street
Moscow, Skolkovo 143026
Russia

Stanislav Kolenikov

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Department of Statistics ( email )

102 Ridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC NC 27514
United States

Ksenia Yudaeva

CEFIR, Centre for Economic and Financial Research ( email )

47 Nakhimovsky Prospect, Office #720
117418 Moscow
Russia

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