33
Principles and practicalities for measuring child poverty Miles Corak Director, Family and Labour Studies, Statistics Canada, Ottawa This paper has three objectives. The first is to discuss the major issues involved in defining and measuring child poverty. The choices that must be made are clarified, and a set of six principles to serve as a guide for public policy are stated. The second objective is to take stock of child poverty and changes in child poverty in the majority of OECD countries since about 1990 when the Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force. Finally, the third objective is to formulate a number of suggestions for the setting of credible targets for the elimination of child poverty in the rich countries. This involves a method for embodying the ideal of children having priority on social resources into a particular set of child poverty reduction targets, it involves the development of appropriate and timely information sources, and finally it involves the clarification of feasible targets that may vary across the OECD. © 2006 UNICEF Journal compilation © 2006 International Social Security Association International Social Security Review, Vol. 59, 2/2006 Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 3 This paper was initiated and conducted while the author was visiting researcher at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. He is currently Director of Family and Labour Studies at Statistics Canada, a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, and an adjunct professor with the Department of Economics at Carleton University, Ottawa. This is a revised version of one of four background research reports to UNICEF Child Poverty in Rich Countries, 2005, Innocenti Report Card No. 6. The author acknowledges and thanks the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre for financial and in-kind support. Tony Atkinson, George Beelen, Rebecca Blank, Bruce Bradbury, Jonathan Bradshaw, Christine Bruniaux, Wen-Hao Chen, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Jean-Yves Duclos, Thesia Garner, Petra Hoelscher, Markus Jäntti, Susan Mayer, John Micklewright, Marco Mira d’Ercole, Brian Nolan, Mark Pearson, Tim Smeeding and Daniel Wienberg commented on parts of a very early draft, giving helpful ad- vice with regard to policy developments in particular countries or substantial help with data and information needs. Wen-Hao Chen in particular provided invaluable help by deriving some of the statistics using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data. The paper has also ben- efited from conversations with Peter Adamson, Eva Jespersen and Marta Santos Pais. The re- sponsibility for its contents, however, rests solely with the author. Comments and feedback are welcomed at [email protected] . The statements in this publication are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policies or the views of UNICEF.

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Page 1: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

Principles and practicalities

for measuring child poverty

Miles Corak

Director, Family and Labour Studies, Statistics Canada,

Ottawa

This paper has three objectives. The first is to discuss the

major issues involved in defining and measuring child

poverty. The choices that must be made are clarified, and

a set of six principles to serve as a guide for public policy

are stated. The second objective is to take stock of child

poverty and changes in child poverty in the majority of

OECD countries since about 1990 when the Convention on

the Rights of the Child came into force. Finally, the third

objective is to formulate a number of suggestions for the

setting of credible targets for the elimination of child poverty

in the rich countries. This involves a method for embodying

the ideal of children having priority on social resources into

a particular set of child poverty reduction targets, it involves

the development of appropriate and timely information

sources, and finally it involves the clarification of feasible

targets that may vary across the OECD.

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Ox ford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

3

This pa per was ini ti ated and con ducted while the au thor was vis it ing re searcher at the

UNICEF Innocenti Re search Cen tre. He is cur rently Di rec tor of Fam ily and La bour Stud ies atSta tis tics Can ada, a re search fel low with the In sti tute for the Study of La bor (IZA), Bonn, and

an ad junct pro fes sor with the De part ment of Eco nom ics at Carleton Uni ver sity, Ot tawa. This

is a re vised ver sion of one of four back ground re search re ports to UNICEF Child Pov erty inRich Coun tries, 2005, Innocenti Re port Card No. 6. The au thor ac knowl edges and thanks the

UNICEF Innocenti Re search Cen tre for fi nan cial and in-kind sup port. Tony Atkinson, GeorgeBeelen, Rebecca Blank, Bruce Bradbury, Jon a than Bradshaw, Chris tine Bruniaux, Wen-Hao

Chen, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Jean-Yves Duclos, Thesia Gar ner, Petra Hoelscher, Markus

Jäntti, Su san Mayer, John Micklewright, Marco Mira d’Ercole, Brian Nolan, Mark Pearson, Tim Smeeding and Dan iel Wienberg com mented on parts of a very early draft, giv ing help ful ad -

vice with re gard to pol icy de vel op ments in par tic u lar coun tries or sub stan tial help with data

and in for ma tion needs. Wen-Hao Chen in par tic u lar pro vided in valu able help by de riv ingsome of the sta tis tics us ing the Lux em bourg In come Study (LIS) data. The pa per has also ben -

efited from con ver sa tions with Pe ter Ad am son, Eva Jespersen and Marta Santos Pais. The re -

spon si bil ity for its con tents, how ever, rests solely with the au thor. Com ments and feed back are wel comed at [email protected].

The state ments in this pub li ca tion are the views of the au thor and do not nec es sar ily re flect thepol i cies or the views of UNICEF.

Page 2: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

The United Na tions Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child con tains 54 ar -

ti cles cov er ing al most ev ery as pect of the rights and well-be ing of chil -

dren. It is a com pre hen sive le gal text ne go ti ated and agreed to by 192 heads

of State. But the Con ven tion is also a spe cific set of com mit ments made to

the chil dren of the world. It is nat u ral to ask, es pe cially since it is now over

15 years since their adop tion by the UN Gen eral As sem bly, if these com mit -

ments are be ing ful filled, if this ideal is be ing put into prac tice. This pa per

is mo ti vated by this con cern and takes as its start ing point two ar ti cles that

re late di rectly to the ma te rial well-be ing of chil dren.

Ar ti cle 27 states that gov ern ments “rec og nize the right of ev ery child to a

stan dard of liv ing ad equate for the child’s phys i cal, men tal, spir i tual, moral

and so cial de vel op ment”. It also states that par ents or oth ers re spon si ble

for the child “have the pri mary re spon si bil ity to se cure . . . the con di tions of

liv ing necessary for the child’s de vel op ment”, but that gov ern ments should

help par ents “to im ple ment this right and shall in case of need pro vide

material as sis tance and sup port programmes, par tic u larly with re gard to

nu tri tion, cloth ing and hous ing”. Ar ti cle 4 notes that these rights shall be

ful filled by each coun try “to the max i mum ex tent of their avail able re -

sources”.

Putt ing these prin ci ples into prac tice may cer tainly be a chal lenge. They

es tab lish the elim i na tion of child pov erty as not only a pol icy ob jec tive but

one that takes top pri or ity. And even if chil dren are given first call on so cial

re sources, at least three prac ti cal chal lenges stand in the way. First, a com -

mit ted gov ern ment must de fine a min i mum stan dard of liv ing nec es sary to

se cure chil dren’s nor mal phys i cal and so cial de vel op ment; sec ond, it must

un der stand the ca pa bil i ties and lim its of fam i lies and mar kets in pro vid ing

this stan dard of liv ing; and third, it must de velop an ev i dence-based aware -

ness of the im pact its pol icy and bud get ary de ci sions ac tu ally have on chil -

dren. Re solv ing these is sues places gov ern ments in a po si tion to for mu late

cred i ble pol i cies and make the at tain ment of an ac cept able min i mum stan d -

ard of liv ing for all chil dren a re al ity.

This is no small agenda. Ques tions con cern ing the in ter ac tion be tween

fam i lies, la bour mar kets and gov ern ment pol icy and how they in flu ence

child pov erty rates are ex am ined in Chen and Corak (2005), while the ac tual

pri or i ties em bed ded in gov ern ment bud gets are the sub ject of Corak, Lietz

and Suther land (2005). This pa per ad dresses the first, and pos si bly most

wide-reach ing chal lenge: that hav ing to do with is sues of def i ni tion.

The pa per has three ob jec tives. The first is to dis cuss the ma jor is sues in -

volved in de fin ing and mea sur ing child pov erty, and to state a set of six

prin ci ples to serve as a guide for pub lic pol icy. These prin ci ples also help to

jus tify a def i ni tion of child pov erty for in ter na tional com par i sons. Ac cord -

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

4

Page 3: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

ingly, the sec ond ob jec tive of the pa per is to take stock of child pov erty and

changes in child pov erty in the ma jor ity of OECD coun tries since about 1990

when the Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child came into ef fect. A set of in -

ter na tion ally com pa ra ble child pov erty rates are of fered and a num ber of

data and mea sure ment is sues ad dressed. Fi nally, the third ob jec tive is to

for mu late a num ber of rec om men da tions for the set ting of cred i ble tar gets

for the elim i na tion of child pov erty in the rich coun tries. This in volves a

method for em body ing the ideal of chil dren hav ing pri or ity on so cial re -

sources into a par tic u lar set of child pov erty re duc tion tar gets. Tar gets that

are struc tured to make chil dren a pri or ity, mea sured in an ac cu rate and ac -

cepted man ner and set at fea si ble lev els, sug gest that gov ern ment com mit -

ments are more likely to be cred i ble and there fore at tain able.

Measuring child poverty in rich countries

An ex ten sive lit er a ture deals with the def i ni tion and mea sure ment of pov -

erty. How ever, read ing it at the broad est level sug gests that three is sues are

in volved: (1) a def i ni tion and mea sure ment of re sources; (2) the es tab lish -

ment of a thresh old dis tin guish ing the poor from the non-poor; and (3) a

count or, more gen er ally, an ag gre ga tion of the num ber of poor into a use ful

in dex.

These is sues are il lus trated sche mat i cally in Fig ure 1. Re sources need to

be de fined and mea sured across the pop u la tion in a sta tis ti cally rep re sen ta -

tive fash ion, the poor need to be iden ti fied by set ting a min i mum ac cept able

level of re sources, and then the num ber of poor needs to be counted in some

way. There is no sin gle way to pro ceed ap pro pri ate for all places and all

times. In par tic u lar, these is sues can not be de ter mined solely in the o ret i cal

or sci en tific dis course. Value judge ments are re quired to bridge the gap.

Pub lic policymakers, ad vo cates and, for that mat ter, sta tis ti cal agen cies

need to be ex plicit about these in or der to en cour age ap pro pri ate pub lic dis -

cus sion, and not to mask ques tions of val ues as is sues of tech nique. All of

these is sues are dis cussed in de tail in the work ing pa per ver sion of this text

(Corak, 2005). The fo cus here is on the sec ond is sue: the iden ti fi ca tion of the

poor by set ting a min i mum thresh old of re sources dis tin guish ing the poor

from the non-poor.

In Fig ure 1 this is in di cated by Y. This is a con ten tious is sue, and one in

which the the o ret i cal eco nom ics lit er a ture of fers lim ited guid ance: there

is no sim ple an swer in the tech ni cal lit er a ture to where the pov erty line

should be drawn or how it should be up dated over time.

When re sources are mea sured by in come as the rel e vant re source the

pov erty thresh old is of ten de fined in two broad ways: in terms of the cost

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Ox ford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

5

Page 4: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

of a spe cific bas ket of goods deemed in some sense to be ne ces si ties; and in

terms of a cer tain frac tion of what is deemed to be a typ i cal in come level.

The for mer can be based on bud get stud ies of con sump tion and the cost of a

par tic u lar bas ket of goods, and is of ten re ferred to as “ab so lute” pov erty

lines;1 the lat ter re lates to a par tic u lar pro por tion of an in come level deemed

in some sense to be typ i cal, and is of ten re ferred to as “rel a tive” lines. How -

ever, the dis tinc tion be tween these two ap proaches has less to do with

meth ods of cal cu la tion, bud get stud ies ver sus pro por tions of typ i cal in -

comes, than with the ex tent of ref er ence to the gen eral com mu nity. Bud get

stud ies can be used to de rive rel a tive thresh olds, and the use of the ad jec tive

“ab so lute” re flects, in fact, the idea that these lines are in tended to make no

ref er ence to the con sump tion level of the gen eral pop u la tion, while the use

of “rel a tive” is meant to un der score the fact that they ex plic itly make such

com par i sons.

If this dis tinc tion is cor rect then it should be noted that there is a long -

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

6

Fig ure 1. Sche matic rep re sen ta tion of three is sues in the der i va tion

of the pov erty rate

Resources (y)Y

1. Resources — f (y) a. Definition b. Unit of analysis c. Equivalence scale

2. Identification of the poor by setting a minimum threshold — Y a. Reference to general population i. Absolute; ii. Relative b. Updating over time i. Fixed; ii. Moving

3. Aggregation to an index1N ß = 0 headcount ratio ß = 1 poverty gap index ß = 2 poverty gap index squared

Number (n, N)

ni =1 (Y–y )i ß

f (y)

1. The appro pri ate bas ket of goods is also some times deter mined by con sult ing the opin ion of

experts, be they in the pri vate sec tor or in gov ern ment. So-called “sub jec tive” pov erty lines are

also used, being derived by directly ask ing a rep re sen ta tive sam ple of indi vid u als what theythink is the min i mum thresh old level of income.

Page 5: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

stand ing ten dency in the ory sug gest ing pov erty lines can not be de fined

with out ref er ence to pre vail ing norms of con sump tion among mem bers of

the rel e vant com mu nity. This was clearly the view of Adam Smith, who

writes, in an of ten cited pas sage from The wealth of na tions pub lished in 1776,

that “by nec es saries I un der stand not only the com mod i ties which are in dis -

pens ably nec es sary for the sup port of life, but what ever the cus tom of the

coun try ren ders it in de cent for cred it able peo ple, even of the low est or der,

to be with out”. He goes on to of fer a num ber of ex am ples of goods, like

linen shirts or leather shoes, that would be con sid ered ne ces si ties in the

Eng land of his time. But he also un der scores the fact that this will vary over

time and across com mu ni ties — peo ple, for ex am ple, could live in some

com mu ni ties in the Eu rope of the 1770s with out leather shoes, and with out

the “shame” or “dis grace” this would en tail in other com mu ni ties — and

con cludes that “un der nec es saries, there fore, I com pre hend not only those

things which na ture, but those things which the es tab lished rules of de -

cency have ren dered nec es sary to the low est rank of peo ple. All other things

I call lux u ries . . . Na ture does not ren der them nec es sary for the sup port of

life, and cus tom no where ren ders it in de cent to live with out them” (Book 5,

Chap ter 2). A clear echo of this point of view more than 200 years later is

in, among oth ers, Atkinson (1998), or for that mat ter in the Con ven tion on

the Rights of the Child where chil dren have a right to a stan dard of liv ing

ad equate not only for phys i cal de vel op ment but also for moral and so cial

de vel op ment, con cepts that can not be de fined with out ref er ence to the

broader com mu nity. Just where to draw the pov erty line is in her ently a

value judge ment deal ing with what is re quired to func tion nor mally in

society.

A clar i fi ca tion be tween ab so lute ver sus rel a tive is sues in the def i ni tion of

pov erty lines is of fered by Sen (1999, 1983). He stresses that the dif fer ences

be tween these per spec tives re late to dif fer ences in what is taken to be the

un der ly ing mea sure, to use the word ing of Fig ure 1, of re sources. “Stan -

dard of liv ing” is best un der stood not in terms of in come or com mod i ties

but rather the ca pa bil ity to do things, to func tion with in comes and com -

mod i ties. To Sen “pov erty is an ab so lute no tion in the space of ca pa bil i ties

but very of ten it will take a rel a tive form in the space of com mod i ties” (1983,

p. 161). This im plies that the com mod i ties and in comes nec es sary to meet

the same ab so lute ca pa bil ity, in terms of both phys i cal ca pa bil ity and the ca -

pa bil ity to func tion with out shame, will vary with the over all de vel op ment

of the com mu nity.

The con tra dic tions in re ly ing upon an “ab so lute” pov erty thresh old in

terms of com mod i ties or in comes are also ev i dent by the em pir i cal ob ser va -

tion that these ne ces si ties are seen to change through time as com mu ni ties

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Ox ford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

7

Page 6: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

ex pe ri ence eco nomic growth and changes oc cur in both the goods that are

avail able and the con sump tion pat terns of the ma jor ity. This is doc u mented

for ex am ple in Fisher (1995), and sug gests that in some fun da men tal way it

is not a sim ple task to gauge even the ba sics of sur vival with out ref er ence to

the wider com mu nity.

This raises a sec ond im por tant con cern in set ting the pov erty line. If re -

sources are de fined in terms of com mod i ties or in comes, how should the

pov erty line be up dated? As Fisher (1995) and Fos ter (1998) sug gest, the

terms “ab so lute” and “rel a tive” can en ter into the dis cus sion of pov erty

lines in a num ber of dif fer ent ways: as an in di ca tion of how the thresh old is

es tab lished, but also how it is up dated over time. An “ab so lute” thresh old is

up dated with the pas sage of time only for changes in over all price lev els,

not changes in the com po si tion of the orig i nal bas ket of goods or level of

the ref er ence in come; a “rel a tive” thresh old is up dated for changes in price

levels as well as changes in the com po si tion of the bas ket of goods deemed

nec es sary or, as the case may be, changes to the typ i cal in come. To avoid

con fu sion these dif fer ences are re ferred to as pov erty mea sures based upon

“fixed” and “mov ing” pov erty lines. Should the pov erty line re main for ever

fixed, or should it change in lock step with con tem po ra ne ous in comes? There

is no the o ret i cal an swer to this. The thresh old must in some sense represent

the level of re sources be low which it would be in suf fi cient to par tic i pate nor -

mally in so ci ety, and it should be up dated as changes oc cur in the avail abil ity

and con sump tion of goods and ser vices that de ter mine this norm.

A fixed pov erty line is less jus ti fi able over a pe riod in volv ing con sid er -

able eco nomic change, par tic u larly when this in volves changes in the types

of goods avail able or the so cial in fra struc ture and other re quire ments ne -

cessary to func tion in so ci ety, at work, at school or in the home. But the

changes in op por tu ni ties and at ti tudes may not be so rapid as to jus tify a

con tin ual up dat ing by ty ing the pov erty line to an nual de vel op ments. Ul ti -

mately the is sue of up dat ing is an open ques tion that ide ally would be

settled by de vel op ing an ob jec tive un der stand ing of how the ma jor ity in

a com mu nity func tion and how this evolves.

Ac cepted sta tis ti cal prac tice may of fer some guid ance. The task of track -

ing pat terns and changes in con sumer ex pen di tures is one that gov ern -

ments reg u larly deal with in other con texts, and in which con sen sus has

emerged on ac cepted prac tice. The ac cu rate mea sure ment of the in fla tion

rate, for ex am ple, is cen tral to many as pects of pub lic pol icy, in clud ing in

some coun tries and re gions the set ting and mon i tor ing of spe cific tar gets.

The in fla tion rate is de ter mined by changes in the costs of a spe cific bas ket

of goods over time. The con tents of this bas ket are in turn de ter mined at a

par tic u lar point in time through na tion ally rep re sen ta tive sur veys to re flect

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

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Page 7: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

the con sump tion pat terns of the av er age con sumer. The im por tant is sue,

which can lend a bias to these cal cu la tions if it is not ad dressed, con cerns the

fre quency with which the con tents of the bas ket are up dated. With out a reg -

u lar up dat ing, the in fla tion rate will mea sure changes in prices that do not

nec es sar ily re flect what the av er age con sumer is cur rently pur chas ing.

These goods could change be cause of changes in rel a tive prices and in -

comes, the in tro duc tion of new goods, or changes in re tail ing and pack -

aging.

Thus, a part of the sta tis ti cal programme in the mea sure ment of the con -

sumer price in dex in cludes a “rebasing” of the bas ket of goods taken to be

rep re sen ta tive of the av er age. Ta ble 1 il lus trates the sta tis ti cal prac tice in the

OECD coun tries. In the ma jor ity of coun tries con sump tion pat terns are

rebased within five years, and in many coun tries bi an nu ally or an nu ally. As

of early 2004, when the in for ma tion in this ta ble was col lected, only four of

28 coun tries were us ing con sumer in for ma tion pre dat ing 1999. The his tor i -

cal ex pe ri ence in the United States is, at ten years, the lon gest in ter val listed

in the ta ble, but this had changed in 2002 to ev ery two years. The In ter na -

tional La bour Or ga ni za tion, which is re spon si ble for set ting in ter na tional

guide lines on price mea sure ment, rec om mends that it oc cur within a

five-year pe riod. All of this is to sug gest that in con texts out side of pov erty

mea sure ment, gov ern ments have con cluded that con sump tion pat terns

change suf fi ciently rap idly that up dat ing has to oc cur within a five-year

and very likely shorter pe riod.

Principles for best practice in defining child poverty

This rep re sen ta tion of the is sues sug gests that the def i ni tion and mea sure -

ment of pov erty are not just a mat ter for the the o re ti cian or the stat is ti cian,

but in her ently in volve value judge ments re quir ing pub lic con sul ta tion and

choices. The ory and sta tis ti cal meth ods of fer some guid ance in set tling the

im por tant is sues, but this is less than com plete. There is, for ex am ple, the

clear sug ges tion that the in di vid ual should be the unit of anal y sis and that

rel a tive no tions must en ter into in come-based mea sures of pov erty lines,

and some ar gu ments for re ly ing on the headcount ra tio, though not with out

res er va tion. But cru cial is sues on how to ex actly set the pov erty thresh old,

how to up date it through time, and for that mat ter the na ture of other types

of re sources to com ple ment an nual in come, are very much left open.

Na tional de vel op ments vary tre men dously: some coun tries have not at -

tempted to de fine or mea sure child pov erty; some have made the at tempt

but have be come en tan gled in tech ni cal i ties and in de ci sion; while oth ers

have es tab lished clear def i ni tions, put into place in stru ments for mea sure -

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Ox ford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

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Page 8: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

In ter na tional So cial S

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, Vol. 59, 2/2006

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ci lbu peR hcezC sraey 5 yr eve tuobA 9991

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yra gnuH sraey 2 yr evE 0002 desi ver dna ,ye vrus eru ti dne pxe dlo hesuoh su o uni tnoc a morf devi red era sthgieW si sthgiew eht rof esab ecn er efer ehT .yll au nna 2 .raey tne rruc eht ot roirp sraey

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Page 9: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

© 2006 U

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Jour nal com pi la tion ©

2006 In ter na tional So cial S

e cu rity As so ci a tion

In ter na tional S

o cial Se cu rity R

e view, V

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Pub lished by B

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11

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Page 10: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

ment and mon i tor ing, and set tar gets. A broad over view of coun try ex pe ri -

ences in the mea sure ment of pov erty and the set ting of tar gets is given in

Corak (2005) and Coun cil for Em ploy ment, In come and So cial Co he sion

(2002).

The les sons of the ory, sta tis tics and ac tual pub lic pol icy in the OECD sug -

gest the fol low ing six prin ci ples as a guide for best prac tice.2 First, avoid un -

nec es sary com plex ity. At tempts to de fine a full set of life’s ne ces si ties or a

set of in di ca tors to re flect all as pects of well-be ing can be very com pli cated,

es pe cially when the need for up dat ing over time is rec og nized. In well

developed mar ket econ o mies in which the fam ily is the ma jor pro vider

of the ma te rial well-be ing of chil dren, the use of an in come-based mea sure

of resources is a good proxy and can avoid com plex ity. Fur ther, data are

available from rep re sen ta tive na tional sur veys, and in come lev els can be

mea sured, com pared and up dated with rea son able re li abil ity.

Sec ond, mea sure ma te rial de pri va tion di rectly. In come does not cap ture

all di men sions of what it means to be poor, es pe cially when it is mea sured

over a pe riod as short as a year. It needs to be com ple mented by ad di tional

in di ca tors, but these should re fer to ac tual con sump tion of goods and ser -

vices by chil dren. These will vary from coun try to coun try, but should be in -

formed by the Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child to in clude health and

nu tri tion, cloth ing, hous ing and other goods, ser vices and op por tu ni ties

nec es sary for nor mal phys i cal, men tal and so cial de vel op ment. At the same

time these in di ca tors should be small in num ber yet in dic a tive, rather than

striv ing to be ex haus tive.

Third, draw pov erty lines with re gard to so cial norms. Both in come and

di rect mea sures of de pri va tion must be tied to the ex pe ri ences of the typ i cal

in di vid ual if they are to be con sis tent with eco nomic the ory and in di cate, as

ex pressed in the Con ven tion, a stan dard of liv ing ad equate for a child’s so -

cial de vel op ment. Ex press ing an in come mea sure as a frac tion of me dian in -

come, and de riv ing ad di tional in di ca tors by ask ing chil dren ques tions

about their so cial en gage ment, are es tab lished mech a nisms. This be ing said,

fle xibility is ap pro pri ate in draw ing the line di vid ing the poor from the

non-poor, be it be low 40, 50 or 60 per cent of me dian in come. Draw ing pov -

erty lines at dif fer ent points may add clar ity in un der stand ing both lev els

and changes in low in come.

Fourth, es tab lish a reg u lar mon i tor ing sys tem. All in di ca tors need to be

up dated reg u larly, es pe cially in come-based mea sures dur ing pe ri ods of

eco nomic change. Ac cepted sta tis ti cal prac tice sug gests that in a grow ing

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

12

2. The word ing of some of these prin ci ples is the result of con ver sa tions with Peter Adam son

on a first draft of UNICEF (2005). I thank him for his feed back and acknowl edge his con tri bu -tion.

Page 11: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

econ omy the con sump tion pat terns of the av er age con sumer change suf fi -

ciently to merit up dat ing within a five-year pe riod, and cer tainly no lon ger

than a de cade. Pov erty lines should be up dated at sim i lar fre quen cies. This

also im plies that data col lec tion and dis sem i na tion need to be de signed

with an eye to time li ness and sustainability.

Fifth, set both a back stop and a tar get. A fixed and a mov ing pov erty line

can be used in con junc tion, on the one hand to set a back stop pre vent ing de -

te ri o ra tion, and on the other hand to set a tar get for prog ress. Fail ure to

lower pov erty ac cord ing to a fixed line im plies that poor chil dren have not

reaped any gains from eco nomic growth. Fail ure to lower it ac cord ing to a

mov ing pov erty line im plies that poor chil dren have not reaped pro por tion -

ately greater gains than oth ers. Thus, re duc ing pov erty mea sured by a fixed

line is a min i mum test of prog ress dur ing growth, but dur ing pe ri ods of

eco nomic de cline it sets an im por tant back stop. A com mit ment of this sort

dur ing eco nomic de cline or re ces sion en sures that chil dren are given pri or -

ity in the al lo ca tion of so cial re sources, and locks in past prog ress. Un der all

con di tions pov erty mea sured ac cord ing to both lines should be lower.

Sixth, of fer lead er ship and build pub lic sup port for pov erty re duc tion.

An op er a tional def i ni tion of pov erty re quires value judge ments that re flect

a con sen sus through dem o cratic di a logue. Of fer lead er ship in struc tur ing

this de bate, and once this is set tled es tab lish goals for prog ress that are both

fea si ble and cred i ble. Back stops and tar gets should be set over a time span

cov er ing the elec toral cy cle. In com ing gov ern ments should set the child

pov erty rate pre vail ing at the time of tak ing of fice as a back stop, and use a

fixed pov erty line to base a com mit ment that un der no cir cum stances will

this rate in crease over their elec toral man date. They should also set a tar get

for low er ing pov erty mea sured against a mov ing line. Cred i bil ity im plies

that these goals should be set over the course of the cur rent man date, not in

the dis tant fu ture for an other gov ern ment.

The first four of these prin ci ples rec og nize im por tant les sons from eco n -

omic the ory, sta tis ti cal prac tice and ac tual pol icy de vel op ments. Iden ti fy -

ing, cost ing and up dat ing spe cific bas kets of goods can lead to un due com -

plex ity in pub lic pol icy de bates and risks end ing in stale mate. In mar ket

econ o mies in come-based mea sures of pov erty are a good start ing point, but

this is not to say that “low in come” should be equated with “pov erty”. Mea -

sur ing ma te rial and so cial de pri va tion with a mean ing ful set of in di ca tors

avoids both com plex ity and the short com ings of us ing just an nual in come.

But there is more need in all con texts to base these mea sure ments on the

per spec tive of the child, us ing child-based in for ma tion sources. This is one

way to lend chil dren a voice in pub lic pol icy that con cerns them di rectly. It

also must be done in a com par a tive way relating to pre vail ing norms and

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

13

Page 12: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

the abil ity to fully par tic i pate in so ci ety, as well as re quir ing ap pro pri ate

up dat ing through time. All of these is sues pre sup pose a cred i ble sta tis ti cal

sys tem to gather and dis sem i nate ac cu rate and timely in for ma tion.

The last two prin ci ples deal with set ting goals that some how em body the

prin ci ple both that chil dren should be given pri or ity in the con duct of pub -

lic pol icy and that pol icy should be seen to be cred i ble. Their work ings re -

quire fur ther com ment, and are il lus trated sche mat i cally in Fig ures 2 and 3.

A hy po thet i cal sit u a tion is il lus trated in Fig ure 2 when there is prog ress in

re duc ing child pov erty over two suc ces sive elec toral man dates through ei -

ther growth in in comes or changes in pub lic pol icy. At the on set of the first

man date a gov ern ment takes the ex ist ing pov erty rate, mea sured with ref -

er ence to the pre vail ing me dian in come, as a back stop. Pov erty rates for

chil dren fall ac cord ing to this fixed pov erty line, and ac cord ing to one mea -

sured by a mov ing pov erty line up dated an nu ally. At the end of the man -

date the new gov ern ment sets a new, lower start ing point as the back stop is

up dated. In most de moc ra cies this cor re sponds to a four-to five-year pe -

riod, roughly the time frame in which sta tis ti cal prac tice sug gests the need

to ac count for changes in av er age con sump tion pat terns. In this way child

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

14

Figure 2. Lowering child poverty during periods of economic growth using fixed

and moving poverty lines to establish a backstop and set targets

First electoral mandate

Backstop poverty rate set asthe poverty rate at the beginningof the first electoral mandate

Backstop poverty rate set asthe poverty rate at the beginningof the second electoral mandate

Poverty rateaccordingto moving poverty line

Poverty rateaccordingto fixed poverty line

Second electoral mandate

Child poverty rate

Page 13: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

poverty rates are pro gres sively low ered over the course of suc ces sive man -

dates, as past prog ress is locked in and more de mand ing tar gets set for the

fu ture.

Fig ure 3 il lus trates a case in which the back stop be comes bind ing dur ing

pe ri ods of eco nomic de cline. In the first man date of this sce nario the econ -

omy is de te ri o rat ing and there would be a ten dency for child pov erty rates

to in crease, with re spect to both fixed and mov ing lines. The back stop em -

bod ies a com mit ment that the al lo ca tion of re sources will be such that the

child pov erty rate, mea sured ac cord ing to the line fixed at the start of the

man date, does not in crease. If the ac tual pov erty rate rises above this, a clear

sig nal is be ing sent that re quires pol icy re sponse. If the gov ern ment is suc -

cess ful, the ac tual child pov erty rate should, at the very least, be no worse

dur ing the course of its man date than the norms pre vail ing at the be gin -

ning. In the sec ond man date, when growth re turns the new gov ern ment

takes this rate as the start ing point.

In other words, the back stop pov erty rate is up dated asym met ri cally

across the sce nar ios pre sented in these two fig ures: pro gres sively ratcheting

down ward dur ing times of growth, but not in creas ing dur ing times of re -

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

15

Figure 3. Preventing a rise in child poverty during periods of economic decline,

using fixed and moving poverty lines to establish a backstop and set targets

First electoral mandate

Poverty rate accordingto fixed poverty lineif the backstopdid not apply Backstop poverty rate from

the first mandate extends through to the second mandate

Poverty rateaccordingto moving poverty lineif the backstopdid not apply

Backstop poverty rate set as the poverty rate at thebeginning of theelectoral mandateprevents a rise in actual rate

Second electoral mandate

Child poverty rate

Page 14: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

ces sions. The use of both a fixed and a mov ing pov erty line in set ting pub lic

pol icy ob jec tives em bod ies the ideal of chil dren hav ing pri or ity in a way

that pre vents in creases in child pov erty and tips the fo cus of pub lic pol icy to

pro gres sively re duc ing it over a suc ces sion of elec toral man dates. Cred i bil -

ity is the out come of pub lic con sul ta tion, lead er ship and the set ting of fea -

sible tar gets over a time frame in which gov ern ments are ac count able. But

it is also the out come of a pro cess or un der stand ing that is long-lived and

ex tends across the man dates of suc ces sive gov ern ments.

Child poverty and changes in child poverty

The spe cif ics of how these six prin ci ples are ac tu ally put into prac tice —

how pov erty is de fined, how spe cific tar gets are set, and how com mit ment

and cred i bil ity are de vel oped and main tained — is a task that will be dif fer -

ent for each gov ern ment. But to sup port this there is merit in un der tak ing a

com par a tive over view of child pov erty rates in the OECD coun tries to

broadly chart its di men sions, to il lus trate the scope for change, and to sug -

gest a range for fea si ble tar gets. In this way these prin ci ples are used in

what fol lows to de velop a work ing def i ni tion for a cross-coun try com par i -

son of child pov erty and changes in child pov erty in the rich coun tries.

First, the fo cus is in come. Us ing in come as the re source avoids com plex -

ity and of fers the best mea sur ing rod to gauge the sit u a tion of chil dren

across coun tries and over time. In the anal y sis that fol lows, in come is taken

to be house hold in come from all sources af ter taxes and trans fers: the

house hold’s dis pos able in come. In di vid u als are the unit of anal y sis, re -

sources are as sumed to be shared equally within the house hold, and the

square root of house hold size is used as the equiv a lence scale. These as -

sump tions are in ac cord with in ter na tional com par a tive re search on in -

come, as for ex am ple in Ex pert Group on House hold In come Sta tis tics

(2001) and the Lux em bourg In come Study (LIS). Com ple men tary mea sures

of ca pa bil i ties and well-be ing will vary from coun try to coun try, which

makes com par i sons dif fi cult and be yond the scope of avail able data.

Sec ond, the fo cus is on the stand ing of chil dren rel a tive to the typ i cal in -

di vid ual in the coun try, de fined as the per son with me dian in come. For the

most part chil dren in low in come are de fined to be those with ac cess to less

than 50 per cent of me dian in come, but when ex am in ing changes over time

a num ber of dif fer ent thresh olds are used. The rel e vance of this for how

chil dren per ceive and are af fected by pov erty is still an open ques tion. For

ex am ple, the me dian in come is that of the me dian in di vid ual, not the me -

dian child. Fur ther, com par i sons are made at the na tional level, not the

smaller geo graphic com mu nity or re gion in which the child lives, or a

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

16

Page 15: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

broader com mu nity of na tion States. Fi nally, as al ready stressed, other mea -

sures of de pri va tion based upon the child’s per spec tive are needed to com -

plete this pic ture and ad dress the is sue of “pov erty” as op posed to “low in -

come”. This def i ni tion also leaves open ques tions about non-cash trans fers

from the State and the pro vi sion of pub lic ser vices, both of which im pact on

the lives of chil dren and are used in dif fer ent de grees across the OECD

coun tries. Garfinkel, Rain wa ter and Smeeding (2004) of fer an ac count of

non-cash trans fers, sug gest ing they play an im por tant role in de ter min ing

dif fer ences in pov erty rates across a num ber of these coun tries.

Third, the fo cus is on prog ress made since the early 1990s, when the Con -

ven tion on the Rights of the Child came into ef fect.3 This be ing so, the use of

a back stop pov erty rate and its up dat ing is not done over the elec toral man -

date of any par tic u lar gov ern ment, but with an em pha sis on the com mit -

ment that gov ern ments made col lec tively. The prin ci ple be ing put forth

is that things should never be worse than the sit u a tion pre vail ing when

the orig i nal com mit ment to chil dren was made, mea sured by a fixed low-

income line, and things should be better for chil dren in relation to the typ i -

cal in di vid ual, as mea sured by a mov ing low-in come line. There fore, as a

back stop, a low-in come line de fined as 50 per cent of the me dian at the time

the Con ven tion came into force is used, ad justed only for in fla tion. This

mea sure is used to put a floor on the ma te rial liv ing stan dards of chil dren at

the level pre vail ing in the early 1990s.

Child low-income rates

Fig ure 4 il lus trates that child low-in come rates vary by al most a fac tor of ten

across the 25 OECD coun tries un der study. The pro por tion of poor chil dren

is less than 5 per cent in only four coun tries — Den mark, Fin land, Nor way

and Swe den — but at the same time more than 10 per cent in 14 coun tries,

and higher than 20 per cent in the United States.

Fur ther, the child rates are higher than the rates for the gen eral pop u la -

tion in all but five coun tries. In Can ada and It aly 15 to 16 per cent of chil dren

are poor, while 11 to about 13 per cent of the gen eral pop u la tion are in

the same sit u a tion, a gap of over 3 per cent age points. A sim i lar gap ex ists

in Lux em bourg, and it ap proaches 5 and even 6 per cent age points in the

United States and New Zea land. In Greece, Den mark, Swe den, Fin land and

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

17

3. The Con ven tion was adopted and opened for sig na ture, rat i fi ca tion and acces sion by the UN

Gen eral Assem bly on 20 Novem ber 1989. It entered into force on 2 Sep tem ber 1990 and hasbeen rat i fied by 191 coun tries (UNICEF, 2002, p. 57). For prac ti cal pur poses the start ing point

for the anal y sis is 1990 or the clos est year before 1990 for which data is avail able. The most

recently avail able data at the time the anal y sis in this paper was under taken is used as the endpoint. For the most part this is 2000, but in some cases slightly ear lier.

Page 16: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

18

Figure 4. Child low-income rates in selected OECD countries during

the late 1990s and early 2000s

Czech Republic*

United States

Child low-income rate (percentage of children with incomes below one-half national median)

Italy

0 5 10 15 20 25

21.9

16.6

16.3

15.7

15.6

15.4

14.9

14.7

14.3

13.3

12.7

12.4

10.2

10.2

9.8

9.1

8.8

7.7

7.5

6.8

6.8

4.2

3.4

2.8

2.4

New Zealand*

Ireland*

Portugal*

United Kingdom

Canada

Australia**

Japan

Spain*

Poland

Greece*

Austria

Germany**

Netherlands

Luxembourg

Hungary

Belgium

France**

Switzerland*

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Denmark*

Source: *Mira d’Ercole and Förster (2005). **Special tab u la tions as pro vided by Bruce Bradbury for Aus tra lia, the INSEEfor France, and Corak, Fertig and Tamm (2005) for Ger many. All other coun tries: Luxembourg In come Study. For thespe cific ref er ence years, which vary from coun try to coun try, see Ta ble 2.

Page 17: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

Norway, chil dren are less likely to be poor than an av er age mem ber of the

pop u la tion. But Ta ble 2 il lus trates that while these dif fer ences are some -

times sig nif i cant, as in Fin land and Nor way, they are also some times slen -

der, as in Greece. Many chil dren face the risk of liv ing in low in come, and

many chil dren face a risk higher than oth ers in their so ci ety.

At least five cau tions are needed in in ter pret ing these num bers. The first

is the ob vi ous point that they are all rel a tive mea sures based upon pov erty

lines drawn from na tional me dian in comes, and there fore re fer to dif fer ent

“ab so lute” stan dards of liv ing. Though all of these coun tries are part of a

select group of rich coun tries, me dian in comes vary a good deal be tween

them, im ply ing for ex am ple that the thresh old in the United States is higher

than that in Po land. Low-in come chil dren in one coun try could have a much

higher rel a tive stan dard of liv ing if they lived in an other. (The ac tual low-

in come thresh olds used in the der i va tion of these fig ures are pre sented in

Ta ble 5, p. 32.) There may in some cases be good rea son to ar gue that the

con cept of com mu nity used in mak ing com par i sons of this sort should be

broader and ex tend be yond na tional bound aries. In deed, Corak, Fertig and

Tamm (2005) point out that this ar gu ment has his tor i cally had par tic u lar

rel e vance in Ger many with the in te gra tion of the East and West. Be fore uni -

fi ca tion East Ger mans were much more likely to gauge their well-be ing in

re la tion to the West than to the typ i cal in comes of their co-cit i zens. This

issue will also likely have in creas ing res o nance in the Eu ro pean Un ion as

the no tion of com mu nity and gov er nance changes. But the fo cus on rel a tive

pov erty de fined ac cord ing to na tional me dian in comes re flects the fact that

chil dren must live and par tic i pate in their own so ci et ies, and that the re -

spon si bil ity for pub lic pol icy to wards the poor re mains very much within

na tional bound aries.

Sec ond, these es ti mates are de rived from sur veys of na tional pop u la tions

and there fore are sub ject to sta tis ti cal un cer tainty. The ex act de gree will

vary from coun try to coun try, but very roughly could be taken to be be -

tween 1 and 2 per cent age points. This would im ply that the ac tual child

pov erty rate in Aus tria, to take a coun try in the very mid dle of Fig ure 4 as an

ex am ple, could rea son ably be be tween 8 and 12 per cent and it ac cord ingly

could as le git i mately be ranked ninth be hind Bel gium as it could 13th just

ahead of Greece.4 For this rea son, the rank ings in the fig ure are not ex act

and the spe cif ics are likely not ter ri bly in for ma tive. All of the coun tries

listed in Fig ure 4 from Greece to It aly have, sta tis ti cally speak ing, about the

same child pov erty rate: in the neigh bour hood of 15 per cent. It is, how ever,

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4. For a list ing of the stan dard er rors as so ci ated with many of the coun tries in Fig ure 4 see the

in for ma tion pro vided by the Lux em bourg In come Study at

www.listproject.org/keyfigures/standarderrors.htm.

Page 18: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

20

Table 2. Low-income rates for children and the overall population in the OECD

Year Low-in come ratea Dif fer ence

Chil dren To tal pop u la tion

1. Coun tries with child rates more than 3 per cent age points higher than over all rates

New Zea land* 2000/01 16.3 10.4 +5.9

United States 2000 21.9 17.0 +4.9

Po land 1999 12.7 8.6 +4.1

It aly 2000 16.6 12.7 +3.9

Can ada 2000 14.9 11.4 +3.5

Lux em bourg 2000 9.1 6.0 +3.1

2. Coun tries with child rates 1 to 3 per cent age points higher than over all rates

United King dom 1999 15.4 12.5 +2.9

Aus tra lia** 1999/2000 14.7 NA NA

Neth er lands 1999 9.8 7.3 +2.5

Czech Re pub lic* 2000 6.8 4.4 +2.4

Aus tria 1997 10.2 8.0 +2.2

Hun gary 1999 8.8 6.7 +2.1

Por tu gal* 2000 15.6 13.7 +1.9

Spain* 1995 13.3 11.5 +1.8

Ger many 2001 10.2 8.9 +1.3

3. Coun tries with child rates within 1 per cent age point of over all rates

France** 2000 7.5 7.0 +0.5

Ire land* 2000 15.7 15.4 +0.3

Swit zer land* 2001 6.8 6.7 +0.1

Bel gium 1997 7.7 8.0 –0.3

4. Coun tries with child rates be low over all rates

Greece* 1999 12.4 13.5 –1.1

Den mark* 2000 2.4 4.3 –1.9

Swe den 2000 4.2 6.5 –2.3

Fin land 2000 2.8 5.4 –2.6

Nor way 2000 3.4 6.4 –3.0

Source (*,**): As Figure 4.a Note that the low-income rate is defined as the proportion of the population or the proportion of children withequivalent incomes less than 50% of the prevailing national median equivalent income. The square root of householdsize is used as the equivalence scale.

NA = not available.

Page 19: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

fair to say that Fig ure 4 sug gests these OECD coun tries fall into four broad

group ings: coun tries with pov erty rates less than 5 per cent; coun tries with

rates be tween about 5 and 10 per cent; those with rates higher than 10 per

cent and less than 20 per cent; and one with a rate in the neigh bour hood of

20 per cent or more.

The third cau tion re lates to the pos si bil ity that the re sults may be sen si -

tive to the equiv a lence scale used; this ap plies par tic u larly to the in for ma -

tion in Ta ble 2. How ever, it should be noted that this in for ma tion is pre -

sented in a con ser va tive fash ion. The com par i son be ing made is be tween

chil dren and the en tire pop u la tion rather than be tween chil dren and just the

adult pop u la tion. Where this ta ble in di cates child pov erty rates greater than

for the over all pop u la tion it is very likely that the dif fer ence is even greater

if the com par i son con sists of just adults. This said, other equiv a lence scales

will im ply a dif fer ent com po si tion of the poor and may lead to dif fer ent re -

sults for some coun tries.

The fourth cau tion deals with the fact that in or der to de velop this list,

two dif fer ent data sources are re lied upon. The first is the Lux em bourg In -

come Study, an in ter na tional data ar chive and re search net work di rected to

the com par a tive anal y sis of in come in the OECD. LIS re lies upon the co op -

er a tion of na tional sta tis ti cal agen cies to pro vide up-to-date ver sions of na -

tion ally rep re sen ta tive in come sur veys of house holds and in di vid u als. It

un der takes a recoding of some in for ma tion to en sure com pa ra bil ity in def i -

ni tions and con cepts, pub lishes sta tis tics of broad in ter est, and makes mi cro

data files ac ces si ble to re search ers in a way that re spects re spon dent con fi -

den ti al ity. The sec ond source is Mira d’Ercole and Förster (2005). These

pov erty rates are based on cal cu la tions per formed by a net work of in ter na -

tional con sul tants us ing na tion ally rep re sen ta tive data sources and co or di -

nated by the OECD. Both LIS and the OECD re port us ing the same meth ods

and def i ni tions with re spect to mea sure ment of in come, unit of anal y sis,

and equiv a lence scales. Fig ure 4 is based upon the most re cently avail able

data from each source, or the most re li able source when in a cou ple of cases

there are ac knowl edged rea sons to ques tion re li abil ity.5 The need to use

both sources stems from the fact that not all na tional sta tis ti cal agen cies

provide data to LIS or timely data. The com pa ra bil ity of these two sources

is ex am ined along a num ber of di men sions in Ta bles 6, 7 and 8 (pp. 33-35),

which sug gest that for the most part the es ti mates are within the range of

sta tis ti cal un cer tainty and that they show the same di rec tion of change.

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21

5. There are two ex cep tions to this. The in for ma tion for Aus tra lia is pro vided by the So cial Policy Re search Cen tre, Uni ver sity of New South Wales, with the as sis tance of BruceBradbury, and that for France is from spe cial tab u la tions pro vided by the Di rec tion desStatistiques démographiques et sociales of INSEE with the as sis tance of P. Che va lier and alsoChris tine Bruniaux of the Coun cil for Em ploy ment, In come and So cial Co he sion.

Page 20: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

The fi nal cau tion has to do with the sen si tiv ity of the cal cu la tions to the

par tic u lar low-in come thresh old used to iden tify the poor: one-half of the

me dian in di vid ual in come.6 A com plete pic ture of low in come can not be

painted with a sin gle sta tis tic. It makes a good deal of sense for policy -

makers to be aware of the en tire in come dis tri bu tion. This can be de picted

for the lower half by us ing sev eral pov erty lines. Ta ble 3 of fers a se ries of

child pov erty rates for 14 of the 25 coun tries for which mi cro data was avail -

able. The thresh olds vary from 30 to 70 per cent of the me dian in come,

which en com passes the range in cur rent pol icy dis course.

At one ex treme child pov erty is vir tu ally non-ex is tent when the line is

drawn as low as 30 per cent of the me dian, but this is not uni ver sally the

case. In It aly and the United States more than 5 per cent of chil dren are still

poor ac cord ing to this thresh old, and in the Neth er lands al most 4 per cent.

These coun tries con tinue to have a non-triv ial pro por tion of chil dren with

very low rel a tive in comes. Seven of 14 coun tries have child pov erty rates

lower than 10 per cent us ing 50 per cent of the me dian, but even in these

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

22

Table 3. Child low-income rates for different thresholds in selected OECD

countries

Coun try Year Pov erty line (as per centage of me dian in come)

30 40 50 60 70

Fin land 2000 0.4 1.3 2.8 8.0 17.9

Nor way 2000 0.9 1.6 3.4 7.5 15.1

Swe den 2000 0.7 1.8 4.2 9.2 17.3

Bel gium 1997 1.7 3.2 7.7 13.7 20.2

Hun gary 1999 2.6 4.4 8.8 16.9 26.0

Lux em bourg 2000 0.5 2.1 9.1 18.3 28.9

Neth er lands 1999 3.9 5.9 9.7 14.2 21.2

Aus tria 1997 3.3 6.5 10.2 17.3 28.5

Ger many 2001 2.8 6.2 10.2 16.9 25.2

Po land 1999 2.6 6.1 12.6 21.4 30.5

Can ada 2000 3.2 7.7 14.9 23.3 33.0

United King dom 1999 2.5 5.5 15.4 27.0 36.8

It aly 2000 5.8 10.6 16.6 26.5 37.3

United States 2000 7.6 14.1 21.9 30.2 37.9

Source: Calculations by author, using Luxembourg Income Study.

6. The me dian is cal cu lated us ing in di vid ual in comes that ac count for the equiv a lence scale.

Page 21: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

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23

Czech Republic*

United States

Percentage-point change in child low-income rate (between about 1990 and 2000)

Italy

0–1–2–4 –3 1 32 54

–3.1

–2.4

–1.8

–0.4

–0.3

–0.2

0.5

0.6

1.2

1.7

1.7

1.9

2.0

2.3

2.4

2.6

2.7

2.7

3.2

3.9

4.1

4.2

4.3

New Zealand*

Ireland*

Portugal*

United Kingdom

Canada

Australia**

Japan

Spain*

Poland

Greece*

Germany**

Netherlands

Luxembourg

Hungary

Belgium

France**

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Denmark

Fig ure 5. Changes in child low-in come rates in se lected OECD coun tries,

us ing a mov ing pov erty line: Late 1980s/early 1990s to late 1990s/early 2000s

Source (*, **): As Fig ure 4.

Page 22: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

coun tries a large frac tion of chil dren hover just above this thresh old. This is

ev i denced by the fact that child pov erty rates more than dou ble for low pov -

erty rate coun tries like Fin land, Nor way and Swe den in mov ing from a 50 to

a 60 per cent cut-off. The in crease is also im por tant for many high child pov -

erty rate coun tries like Po land, Can ada, the United King dom and It aly.

With a pov erty line of 60 per cent of me dian in come, their pov erty rates are

all above 20 per cent. Only three coun tries have child pov erty rates be low

one in ten when the thresh old is set at this level. With a line at 70 per cent

there is no coun try with a rate be low 10 per cent, and all but three are above

20 per cent with five higher than 30 per cent.

Changes in child low-income rates

Fig ure 5 charts changes in child pov erty rates be tween about the end of the

1980s to early 1990s, just be fore or around the time the Con ven tion came

into ef fect, and the late 1990s to early 2000s, roughly a de cade later. In 15 of

the 23 coun tries fea tured, child pov erty rates have risen by more than 1 per -

cent age point, and in only three — the United King dom, the United States

and Nor way — has there been a sta tis ti cally sig nif i cant fall. Of these only

Nor way be gan the 1990s with rel a tively low child pov erty rates. At the

other ex treme, child pov erty rates rose by about 4 or more per cent age points

in Bel gium, Lux em bourg, the Czech Re pub lic and Po land. The ex pe ri ence

in the ma jor ity of these coun tries sug gests that the rel a tive eco nomic sit u a -

tion of low-in come chil dren has de te ri o rated.

A more re fined pic ture of these changes is of fered in Ta ble 4 and il lus -

trated in Fig ure 6, of fer ing changes in child pov erty rates us ing both a mov -

ing and a fixed pov erty line for 11 coun tries for which ac cess to the mi cro

data to un der take the cal cu la tions was avail able. Among the coun tries ex -

pe ri enc ing in creases in child pov erty rates ac cord ing to a mov ing pov erty

line, three can be said to have ac tu ally un der gone the type of change de -

picted hy po thet i cally in Fig ure 3. In It aly, Hun gary and to a lesser ex tent

Ger many, low in come mea sured against both a mov ing and a fixed thresh -

old in creased sig nif i cantly. These are ex am ples of cases in which a back stop

was not set on child pov erty rates so that by the end of the 1990s it was

higher even by the stan dards pre vail ing a de cade ear lier when the Con -

vention came into force. In the face of tur bu lent eco nomic changes that saw

ei ther very lit tle growth in me dian in comes (as in Ger many) or sig nif i cant

de clines (as in It aly and Hun gary), chil dren lost ground rel a tive to better

times in the past, but also rel a tive to pre vail ing in come lev els. Like oth ers in

the pop u la tion their stan dard of liv ing de clined, but the bur den of eco n -

omic change also fell dis pro por tion ately upon them.

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

24

Page 23: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

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Page 24: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

In Bel gium, the Neth er lands, and to a lesser ex tent Swe den, the sit u a tion

was slightly dif fer ent, though it still can be un der stood in terms of Fig ure 3.

Me dian in comes in creased in these coun tries, but this was not re flected in

lower child pov erty rates. The back stop was re spected in that chil dren

main tained their stan dard of liv ing rel a tive to the early 1990s. But they ex -

pe ri enced none of the ben efits in in come growth, los ing ground rel a tive to

the me dian. Low-in come rates ac cord ing to a mov ing line rose.

Only in Nor way, the United States and the United King dom can it be said

that the type of sce nario de picted in Fig ure 2 played out since the Con ven -

tion came into force, with child pov erty rates fall ing ac cord ing to both in di -

ca tors.

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

26

United Kingdom

Percentage-point change in child low-income rate(between about 1990 and 2000)

Movingpoverty line

Fixedpoverty line

–5–15 0 105–10 15

United States

Norway

Canada

Finland

Sweden

Italy

Netherlands

Hungary

Germany

Belgium

Fig ure 6. Changes in child low-in come rates in se lected OECD coun tries, us ing a

mov ing and a fixed pov erty line: Late 1980s/early 1990s to late 1990s/early 2000s

Source: As Ta ble 4.

Page 25: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

27

Czech Republic*

United States

Percentage of children in low income

Before taxes andtransfers

After taxes and transfers

Switzerland*

100 15 25205 30

21.926.6

16.327.9

15.724.9

15.6

New Zealand*

Ireland*

Portugal*

United Kingdom

Canada

Austria

Poland

Greece*

Germany

Netherlands

Hungary

Belgium

France*

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Denmark*

16.4

15.425.4

14.922.8

12.719.9

12.418.5

10.217.7

10.218.2

9.811.1

8.823.2

7.716.7

7.527.7

6.815.8

6.87.8

4.218.0

3.415.5

2.818.1

2.411.8

Fig ure 7. Child low-in come rates in se lected OECD coun tries, based on mar ket

sources and dis pos able in come: Late 1990s and early 2000s

Source (*): As Fig ure 4.

Page 26: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

The rea sons for these changes re quire much more de tailed study and re -

flect the in flu ences of fam i lies, la bour mar kets and gov ern ment pol icy on

the ma te rial sit u a tion of chil dren. These is sues are dis cussed in Chen and

Corak (2005), but it is im por tant to note that fam i lies and la bour mar kets are

lim ited in their ca pac ity to lower child pov erty rates be low 10 per cent. Fig -

ure 7 con trasts the child low-in come rates used in Fig ure 4, based on house -

hold dis pos able in come, with rates de fined on the ba sis of mar ket in comes

(be fore taxes and trans fers). Low-in come rates are above 10 per cent in 19 of

the 20 coun tries listed in Fig ure 7 and above 20 per cent in seven of them.

Swit zer land is the only coun try with a child pov erty rate based on mar ket

in comes that is lower than 10 per cent.

This said, the dif fer ence be tween low-in come rates be fore and af ter taxes

and trans fers should not be taken as an as sess ment of the im pact of tax/

trans fer pol icy on chil dren. This is a very sim plis tic de scrip tion that takes no

ac count of the be hav ioural im pact of these pol i cies; nor does it ac count for

non-cash trans fers or the pro vi sion of other pub lic goods. Corak, Lietz and

Suther land (2005) ex am ine gov ern ment bud gets and their im pact on child

pov erty rates in much more de tail and note, as Fig ure 7 sug gests, that the

very wide range in pov erty rates chil dren face in these rich coun tries has

some thing im por tant to do with gov ern ment tax and spend ing de ci sions.

Over all pov erty rates re sult ing from mar ket in comes vary by roughly a fac -

tor of three, from about 10 to al most 30 per cent. But af ter taxes and trans fers

they are much more dif fer en ti ated, vary ing by a fac tor of nine, from around

3 to 28 per cent.

Conclusion

Ar ti cles 4 and 27 of the Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child to gether

establish the elim i na tion of child pov erty as a pol icy com mit ment that

governments in both rich and poor coun tries should take as a top pri or ity.

Tak ing top pri or ity does not mean that child pov erty can be elim i nated in -

stantly. It is rec og nized that so cial and eco nomic rights some times need to

be re al ized pro gres sively as the un der stand ing of is sues evolves, and as ap -

pro pri ate and ef fec tive in ter ven tions are un cov ered and put into place. Nor

does this mean, how ever, that the com mit ment to elim i nate child pov erty

is al ways one for to mor row. Rather there should be pro gres sive move ment

to lower and lower rates of child pov erty as the ideal that chil dren should

have pri or ity in terms of so cial re sources be comes en trenched in dis course

and de ci sions.

The anal y sis in this pa per finds that re al ity is far from this ideal. First,

child low-in come rates vary by al most a fac tor of ten across the OECD coun -

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Page 27: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

tries un der study. These coun tries fall into four broad groups: those with

child pov erty rates less than 5 per cent, those with higher rates but still less

than 10 per cent, those with rates higher than 10 per cent, and fi nally one

coun try with more than one in five chil dren be ing poor. Such vari a tion cre -

ates at least the pre sump tion that there is noth ing in ev i ta ble about the level

of child pov erty in a given coun try. All OECD coun tries op er ate broadly

sim i lar free-mar ket eco nomic sys tems, and their widely dif fer ing child pov -

erty rates re flect dif fer ent pol i cies in ter act ing with la bour mar ket and so cial

in sti tu tions. In deed, pov erty rates based upon dis pos able in comes (af ter tax

— af ter trans fer) vary much more than those cal cu lated from solely mar ket

in comes.

Sec ond, in the strong ma jor ity of coun tries for which re li able data is

avail able, the rate of low in come among chil dren, far from grad u ally de clin -

ing, has ac tu ally gone up since the early 1990s when the Con ven tion on the

Rights of the Child first came into force. In 15 of 23 OECD coun tries the

child pov erty rate at the end of the 1990s was higher than at the be gin ning,

and in only three coun tries has it de clined to a mea sur able de gree. Though

the spe cific rea sons for this trend are not ad dressed, it does not sug gest that

chil dren are a top pub lic pol icy pri or ity.

There are at least three prac ti cal chal lenges that might stand in the way of

this be ing so: lack of clar ity in a pol icy-rel e vant def i ni tion of pov erty; lack of

un der stand ing of how fam i lies and la bour mar kets work to de ter mine pov -

erty rates; and lack of un der stand ing of the pri or i ties em bed ded in gov ern -

ment tax and trans fer programmes as well as their ef fec tive ness in low er ing

pov erty rates. The ma jor ob jec tive of this pa per is to ad dress the first is sue,

to do with def i ni tion and mea sure ment. The first step in elim i nat ing child

pov erty re quires gov ern ments to clearly de fine and mea sure what it means

for a child to be poor. With out this, cred i ble tar gets can not be set and pro -

gress can not be mon i tored. This is only a first step, but an im por tant one

that raises dif fi cul ties even for the most com mit ted pub lic policymaker.

The ques tions that must be an swered are clar i fied, and a set of prin ci ples

to serve as a guide in ad dress ing them stated. A def i ni tion of pov erty re -

quires the def i ni tion and mea sure ment of the re sources de ter min ing well-

be ing; the set ting of a thresh old dis tin guish ing the poor from the non-poor;

and a mean ing ful count of the poor. The ory and sta tis ti cal prac tice of fer

some but not com plete guid ance, so that value judge ments and practi -

calities need to bridge the gap. In all as pects of these three is sues there is a

need to rec og nize the par tic u lar con cerns of chil dren and to tilt in for ma -

tion-gath er ing to ward sur veys that ex plic itly rec og nize their sit u a tion.

The ory, sta tis ti cal prac tice and ac tual pub lic pol icy de bates in the OECD

sug gest the fol low ing six prin ci ples to guide the for mu la tion of a def i ni tion:

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

29

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• avoid un nec es sary com plex ity by us ing an in come-based mea sure of

resources;

• com ple ment this by mea sur ing ma te rial de pri va tion di rectly, us ing a

small set of in di ca tors;

• draw pov erty lines with re gard to so cial norms;

• es tab lish a reg u lar mon i tor ing sys tem and up date pov erty lines within

a five-year pe riod;

• set both a back stop and a tar get by the use of fixed and mov ing pov erty

lines;

• of fer lead er ship and build pub lic sup port for pov erty re duc tion.

The spe cif ics of how these prin ci ples are put into prac tice will vary from

coun try to coun try, but in all cases they should be used to de velop fea si ble

and cred i ble tar gets for pov erty re duc tion over the course of a gov ern -

ment’s elec toral man date. Such tar gets struc tured to make chil dren a pri or -

ity over the course of a man date, ratcheted down ward to ever more de -

mand ing lev els with each new gov ern ment, are im por tant first steps in

reversing the trend of the past and set ting a course for lower child pov erty

in the fu ture.

Bibliography

Atkinson, A. B. 1998. Pov erty in Europe. Oxford, Blackwell.

Chen, W.-H.; Corak, M. 2005. Child pov erty and changes in child pov erty (Innocenti

Work ing Paper No. 2005-02 and IZA Dis cus sion Paper No. 1574). Flor ence,

UNICEF Innocenti Research Cen tre; Bonn, Insti tute for the Study of Labor.

Corak, M. 2005. Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty in rich coun tries

(Innocenti Work ing Paper No. 2005-01 and IZA Dis cus sion Paper No. 1579).

Flor ence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Cen tre; Bonn, Insti tute for the Study of

Labor.

Corak, M.; Fertig, M.; Tamm, M. 2005. A por trait of child pov erty in Ger many

(Innocenti Work ing Paper No. 2005-03 and IZA Dis cus sion Paper No. 1528).

Flor ence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Cen tre; Bonn, Insti tute for the Study of

Labor.

Corak, M.; Lietz, C.; Suther land, H. 2005. The Impact of tax and trans fer sys tems on

chil dren in the Euro pean Union (Innocenti Work ing Paper No. 2005-04 and IZA

Dis cus sion Paper No. 1589). Flor ence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Cen tre;

Bonn, Insti tute for the Study of Labor.

Coun cil for Employ ment, Income and Social Cohe sion. 2002. Estimer l’évolution

récente de la pauvreté (Un dos sier du Cerc). Paris. Also avail able at

www.cerc.gouv.fr (vis ited on 23 Jan u ary 2006).

In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

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Page 29: Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty

Expert Group on House hold Income Sta tis tics. 2001. Final report and rec om men da -

tions. Ottawa, Can berra Group.

Fisher, G. M. 1995. Is there such a thing as an abso lute pov erty line over time? Evi dence

from the United States, Brit ain, Can ada, and Aus tra lia on the income elas tic ity of the

pov erty line (Pov erty Mea sure ment Work ing Papers). Wash ing ton, DC, US Cen -

sus Bureau. Also avail able at

www.cen sus.gov/hhes/pov erty/povmeas/papers/elastap4.html (vis ited on

23 Jan u ary 2006).

Fos ter, J. E. 1998. “Abso lute ver sus rel a tive pov erty”, in Amer i can Eco nomic Review,

Vol. 88, No. 2.

Garfinkel, I.; Rain wa ter, L.; Smeeding, T. M. 2004. Wel fare state expen di tures and the

redis tri bu tion of well-being: Chil dren, elders and oth ers in com par a tive per spec tive

(Lux em bourg Income Study Work ing Paper No. 387, Octo ber). New York.

Mira d’Ercole, M.; Förster, M. 2005. Income dis tri bu tion and pov erty in OECD coun -

tries in the sec ond half of the 1990s (OECD Social Employ ment and Migra tion

Work ing Papers No. 22). Paris, Organi sa tion for Eco nomic Co-oper a tion and

Devel op ment.

Sen, A. 1983. “Poor, rel a tively speak ing”, in Oxford Eco nomic Papers, Vol. 35, No. 2.

Sen, A. 1999. Devel op ment as free dom. New York, Ran dom House.

Smith, A. 1776. The wealth of nations. Avail able at

http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/ (vis ited on 23 Jan u ary 2006).

UNICEF. 2002. A world fit for chil dren. New York, United Nations Chil dren’s Fund.

UNICEF. 2005. Child pov erty in rich coun tries, 2005 (Innocenti Report Card No. 6).

Flor ence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Cen tre.

© 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006

Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Ox ford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

31

Ta bles 5 to 8 â

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

32

Table 5. Low-income thresholds used in the derivation of poverty rates

for Figure 4

Lux em bourg In come Study OECD

Year 50% of me dianequiv a lent in come

Year 50% of me dianequiv a lent in come

Aus tra lia

Aus tria 1999 104,972

Bel gium 1997 298,832

Can ada 2000 12,444

Czech Re pub lic 2000 60,237

Den mark 2000 83,391

Fin land 2000 48,727

France

Ger many* 2000 8,702 2001 12.8

Greece* 1999 1,359

Hun gary 1999 274,499

Ire land 2000 6,668

It aly* 2000 11,412

Lux em bourg 2000 521,807

Neth er lands 1999 17,243

New Zea land 2000/01 10,208

Nor way 2000 86,108

Po land 2000 5,740

Por tu gal 2000 714,779

Spain 1995 926,809

Swe den 2000 70,224

Swit zer land 2001 22,384

United King dom 1999 4,751

United States 2000 10,482

Note: All data are expressed in inflation-adjusted national currency units for the year indicated except those indicatedwith *. For Germany information is in euros, and for Greece and Italy it is in thousands of the national currency unit. The source for the OECD data is Annex Table 2 of Mira d’Ercole and Förster (2005). Data for Australia and France arenot available.

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

33

Table 6. A comparison of child low-income rates from two alternative data

sources, using most recently available data from each source

Lux em bourg In come Study OECD Dif fer ence

Year Rate Year Rate

Aus tra lia 1998/99 11.6

Aus tria 1997 10.2 1999 13.3

Bel gium 1997 7.7

Can ada 2000 14.9

Czech Re pub lic 2000 6.8

Den mark 1997 8.7 2000 2.4

Fin land 2000 2.8 2000 3.4 –0.6

France 2000 7.3

Ger many 2001 12.8

Ger many (West) 2000 6.8 2001 13.1

Greece 1999 12.4

Hun gary 1999 8.8 2001 13.1

Ire land 2000 15.7

It aly 2000 16.6 2000 15.7 0.9

Lux em bourg 2000 9.1

Neth er lands 1999 9.8 2000 9.0

New Zea land 2000/01 16.3

Nor way 2000 3.4 2000 3.6 –0.2

Po land 1999 12.7 2000 9.9

Por tu gal 2000 15.6

Spain 1995 13.3

Swe den 2000 4.2 2000 3.6 0.6

Swit zer land 2001 6.8

United King dom 1999 15.4 2000 16.2

United States 2000 21.9 2000 21.6 0.3

Source: LIS data are from Luxembourg Income Study, Key Figures, accessed at www.lisproject.org/keyfigures.htm on 8 June 2004. OECD data are from Mira d’Ercole and Förster (2005).

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In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 59, 2/2006 © 2006 UNICEF Jour nal com pi la tion © 2006 In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion

Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

34

Table 7. A comparison of child low-income rates from two alternative data

sources, using most recent common year from each source

Lux em bourg In come Study OECD Dif fer ence

Year Rate Year Rate

Aus tra lia 1993/94 15.7 1993/94 10.9 4.8

Aus tria 1994 9.7 1993 7.3 2.4

Bel gium

Can ada

Czech Re pub lic 1996 6.6 1996 5.5 1.1

Den mark 1995 9.5 1994 1.8 7.7

Fin land 2000 2.8 2000 3.4 –0.6

France 1994 7.9 1994 7.1 0.8

Ger many

Ger many (West) 1994 10.6 1994 10.6 0

Greece

Hun gary 1994 11.4 mid-1990s 10.3 1.1

Ire land 1994 14.6 1994 13.4 1.2

It aly 2000 16.6 2000 15.7 0.9

Lux em bourg

Neth er lands 1999 9.8 2000 9.0 0.8

New Zea land

Nor way 2000 3.4 2000 3.6 –0.2

Po land 1995 15.4 1995 16.2 –0.8

Por tu gal

Spain 1990 12.2 1990 10.6 1.6

Swe den 2000 4.2 2000 3.6 0.6

Swit zer land

United King dom 1995 19.8 1995 17.4 2.4

United States 2000 21.9 2000 21.6 0.3

Note: Data for Belgium, Canada, Germany (unified), Greece, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland are not available.

Source: As Table 6.

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Prin ci ples and practicalities for mea sur ing child pov erty

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35

Table 8. A comparison of changes in child low-income rates from two alternative

data sources

Lux em bourg In come Study OECD Di rec tion

of changeis same

early1990sa

about2000

change early1990s

about2000

change

Aus tra lia 15.5 11.6 –3.9

Aus tria 4.8 10.2 5.4 7.3 13.3 6.0 yes

Bel gium 3.8 7.7 3.9

Can ada 15.3 14.9 –0.4

Czech Re pub lic 2.6 6.8 4.2

Den mark 5.0 8.7 3.7 1.8 2.4 0.6 yes

Fin land 2.3 2.8 0.5 2.1 3.4 1.3 yes

France 6.1 7.3 1.2

Ger many 12.8

Ger many (West) 4.6 6.8 2.2 6.7 13.1 6.4 yes

Greece 12.7 12.4 –0.3

Hun gary 6.9 8.8 1.9 5.7 13.1 7.4 yes

Ire land 13.3 15.7 2.4

It aly 14.0 16.6 2.6 13.5 15.7 2.2 yes

Lux em bourg 5.0 9.1 4.1

Neth er lands 8.1 9.8 1.7 6.7 9.0 2.3 yes

New Zea land 14.3 16.3 2.0

Nor way 5.2 3.4 –1.8 4.4 3.6 –0.8 yes

Po land 8.4 12.7 4.3 16.2 9.9 –6.3 no

Por tu gal 12.4 15.6 3.2

Spain 10.6 13.3 2.7

Swe den 3.0 4.2 1.2 2.6 3.6 1.0 yes

Swit zer land 6.8

United King dom 18.5 15.4 –3.1 17.2 16.2 –1.0 yes

United States 24.3 21.9 –2.4 22.2 21.6 –0.6 yes

a Austrian data are for 1987, Belgium for 1988, German for 1989; all others for either 1991 or 1992, except Australianwhich are 1993/94.