 Minimum income support for families with children in Europe and the US: where does it stand?Elise Aerts, Ive Marx and Zachary Parolin No 2204, Working Papers from Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp Abstract: This paper takes stock of income support provisions for families with children in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. We look at the impact of regulatory instruments such as statutory minimum wages and also at the role of more direct income supports like child benefits and refundable tax credits. We also consider the impact of design. What is the relative role of universal as opposed to more targeted provisions, be it by family type or (pre-tax) income level? In short, what can we learn from the best-performing countries when it comes to ensuring that families with children have adequate minimum resources? We demonstrate that there is very substantial variation in the levels of income support provided to working and non-working families across Europe and the US. The most generous countries support incomes through layers of policies of which significant minimum wages and both universal and targeted child benefits (or tax credits) are key layers. The main lesson here is that, if the political will is there, workable policy mixes are available to make sure that parents have adequate minimum income resources to provide their children an upbringing free from poverty. Date: 2022-04 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hdl:wpaper:2204 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Papers from Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.