What Works Best in Reducing Child Poverty: A Benefit or Work Strategy?

Peter Whiteford and Willem Adema

No 51, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Child poverty is firmly on the policy agenda in many OECD countries. One of the main issues in the debate is the appropriate balance between the so-called “benefits strategy” (increasing the adequacy of benefits for low-income families with children) and the so-called “work strategy” (promoting policies to increase employment among poor families). The need to choose between these two apparent alternatives is sometimes seen as a consequence of an unavoidable trade-off between adequacy of benefits, work incentives and the costs of assistance... La pauvreté des enfants figure aujourd’hui sans aucun doute à l’agenda politique de plusieurs pays de l’OCDE. Une des problématiques dans le débat sur la pauvreté des enfants est de trouver le juste équilibre entre la « stratégie des prestations » (qui consiste à augmenter convenablement les prestations pour les familles à bas revenus avec enfants) et la « stratégie du travail » (qui consiste à encourager les politiques visant à augmenter l’emploi chez les familles pauvres). Le besoin de choisir entre ces deux alternatives est parfois perçu comme étant la conséquence d’une inévitable incompatibilité entre adéquation des prestations, incitations au travail et coûts de l’aide...

JEL-codes: H53 I32 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-03-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
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