Income inequalities and poverty among households with children in selected OECD countries: trends and determinants

How did the economic situation of children develop across 17 Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the last decade? This chapter: • reviews changes in average incomes, the distribution of incomes and poverty of children; • suggests possible factors underlying these changes; • analyses the response of the tax/transfer system to changes in market income across countries and over time. After a short description of the data, the first substantive part of the chapter explores whether the economic situation of children has deteriorated overall. Changes to the overall income distribution of children are then analysed using various distribution indices. This is complemented by an analysis of poverty indicators to assess developments towards the bottom of the distribution. In each case, the possible effect of changing population structures of different household types is examined. The second part of the chapter analyses the impact of income taxes and public transfers on low incomes among children. The chapter concludes with implications of the results for policy.