The Dynamics of Child Poverty in Industrialised Countries

A major study of child poverty in industrialised countries using 'dynamic analysis' and cross-national comparisons.

Bruce Bradbury (Edited by), Stephen P. Jenkins (Edited by), John Micklewright (Edited by)

9780521004923, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 July 2001

328 pages, 55 tables
22.8 x 15.4 x 2.3 cm, 0.523 kg

'There is something for everyone interest in the topics of poverty and income dynamics … The book is original in content and long overdue, the writing quality and integration across chapters is outstanding … The book will appeal more to academics than to policy analysts, but will be appreciated by the insights it offers to all serious academic and nonacademic analysts of poverty dynamics. It makes a great deal of basic information very accessible and straightforward … The sheer weight of the coordination of analytics across seven nations, which is evident here, is too much to ask most authors to undertake. this makes for a fresh, high quality and very hard to duplicate effort. Serious analysts of the dynamics of disadvantage mobility should all have this book on their shelves.' Professor Tim Smeeding, Syracuse University

A child poverty rate of ten percent could mean that every tenth child is always poor, or that all children are in poverty for one month in every ten. Knowing where reality lies between these extremes is vital to understanding the problem facing many countries of poverty among the young. This unique study goes beyond the standard analysis of child poverty based on poverty rates at one point in time and documents how much movement into and out of poverty by children there actually is, covering a range of industrialised countries - the USA, UK, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Hungary and Russia. Five main topics are addressed: conceptual and measurement issues associated with a dynamic view of child poverty; cross-national comparisons of child poverty rates and trends; cross-national comparisons of children's movements into and out of poverty; country-specific studies of child poverty dynamics; and the policy implications of taking a dynamic perspective.

Part I. Issues and Cross-National Evidence: 1. Beyond the snapshot: a dynamic view of child poverty Bruce Bradbury, Stephen P. Jenkins and John Micklewright
2. Conceptual and measurement issues Bruce Bradbury, Stephen P. Jenkins and John Micklewright
3. Child poverty across 25 countries Bruce Bradbury and Markus Jäntti
4. The dynamics of child poverty in seven industrialised nations Bruce Bradbury, Stephen P. Jenkins and John Micklewright
Part II. Topics in Child Poverty Dynamics: 5. Income mobility and exits from poverty of American children Peter Gottschalk and Sheldon Danziger
6. Child poverty in Germany: trends and persistence Christian Schluter
7. Poverty among British children: chronic or transitory? Martha S. Hill and Stephen P. Jenkins
8. Child income poverty and deprivation dynamics in Ireland Brian Nolan, Bertrand Maître and Dorothy Watson
9. Young people leaving home: the impact on poverty in Spain Olga Cantó and Magda Mercader-Prats
10. Are children being left behind in the transition in Hungary? Peter Galasi and Gyula Nagy
11. Mobility and poverty dynamics among Russian children Jeni Klugman and Alexandre Kolev
Part III. Summary and Policy Conclusions: 12. Thinking about children in time J. Lawrence Aber and David T. Ellwood.

Subject Areas: Microeconomics [KCC], Child welfare [JKSB1], Welfare & benefit systems [JKSB], Poverty & unemployment [JFFA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]