Child Poverty and Social Protection during the Economic Crisis in Middle-Income Countries

Emily Nell, Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Martin Evans, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Janet C. Gornick, City University of New York (CUNY)

This paper considers how child poverty and inequality have changed over the period of 2007-2010 across a variety of diverse middle-income countries. We use data from LIS to analyze child poverty and inequality using harmonized measures of income in South Africa, Colombia, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile. The paper addresses three main questions: First, how has the risk of child poverty and inequality changed over the 2007-2010 period, and what differences are there between countries in such trends? Second, how have the drivers of child poverty and inequality changed over the period, especially in employment, changing income and spending patterns, and support from families? Third, how have state transfers responded to the changed poverty risk and how far have children been protected from poverty by public policy? For this final question, we disaggregate incomes to identify changing tax and transfer profiles and their gross effect on poverty risk.