Expenditure Patterns Post-Welfare Reform in the UK: Are Low-Income Families Starting to Catch Up?

Paul Gregg, Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook ()

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation from The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: In this paper we provide evidence on how the UK government’s welfare reforms since 1998 have affected the material well-being of children in low-income families. We examine changes in expenditure patterns and ownership of durable goods for low- and higher-income families between the pre-reform period (1995-1998) and the post-reform period (2000-2003), using data from the Family Expenditure Survey. The methodological approach is a difference-in-difference-in-difference analysis that exploits the fact that age variation in the reforms favoured low-income families over higher-income ones and families with children age under 11 over those with older children. We find that low-income families with children are catching up to more affluent families, in their expenditures and their possession of durable goods. Moreover, expenditures on child-related items are increasing faster than expenditures on other items.

Keywords: child poverty; family expenditures; welfare reform; difference-in-difference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I3 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2005-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec
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Related works:
Working Paper: Expenditure Patterns Post-Welfare Reform in the UK: Are low-income families starting to catch up? (2005)
Working Paper: Expenditure patterns post-welfare reform in the UK: are low-income families starting to catch up? (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:cmpowp:05/119

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