Publications

This study analyzes the impact of an exogenous, positive income shock on caregivers’ subjective well-being in Malawi using panel data from 3,365 households targeted to receive Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme that provides unconditional cash to ultra-poor, labour-constrained households. The study consists of a cluster-randomized, longitudinal design. After the baseline survey, half of these village clusters were randomly selected to receive the transfer and a follow-up survey was conducted 17 months later. Utilizing econometric analysis and panel data methods, we find that household income increases from the cash transfer can have substantial subjective well-being gains among caregivers. Households use the cash to improve their families’ livelihoods, ensuring provision of their basic needs including food, shelter, and clothing. Reduction of these daily stresses makes caregivers happier about their current situations and gives them hope that the future will continue to get better.

Economic collapse in the former Communist bloc led to soaring levels of child poverty in the 1990s. The effects of rising unemployment, underemployment and wage arrears were exacerbated by the erosion of state support for families with children as governments responded to a collapse in revenue. Since 1998, even the poorer countries of the bloc - those in South Eastern Europe and the CIS - have seen a return to economic growth. But have the benefits of growth been felt by children? Are child support policies being restored or restructured as economic conditions improve, and to what effect? This paper examines three aspects of government support for the youngest children – maternity leave policy, child and family allowances and pre-school/nursery provision. The paper calls for governments and donors to pay greater attention to the needs of very young children. It calls for a substantial increase in public spending on each of these policy areas, and it further recommends that governments (a) introduce proxy means tests to improve the targeting of family allowances; (b) make maternity benefit available on a social assistance as well as a social insurance basis; and (c) make a commitment to ensuring that all 3-5 year olds have free access to some early years education each week, albeit on a part-time basis.

Процесс международной интеграции ярче высветил многие проблемы, и не в последнюю очередь рост масштабов бедности и неравенства между странами и внутри стран. Это относится как к странам Центральной и Восточной Европы и Содружества Независимых Государств, так и к другим регионам мира. После краха коммунистических режимов вместо 8 стран, существовавших в 1989 году, к середине 1990-х годов образовалось 27. Рыночные реформы не только принесли ногочисленные выгоды и преимущества, но и породили нестабильность. Сегодня жизнь детей в этом регионе совсем не такая, как у их родителей, – шире перспективы, больше свободы и возможностей выбора, но при этом и больше бедности, неравенства и риска.

L’Innocenti Social Monitor 2004 prende in esame la povertà dei bambini in un mondo sempre più integrato, affrontando il problema da quattro diversi punti di vista: 'Crescita economica e povertà dei bambini' fa un esame della situazione dei bambini che subiscono la povertà legata al reddito familiare e registra che dalla fine degli anni novanta una costante crescita economica ha ridotto la proporzione di persone che vivono in famiglie con reddito inferiore al minimo nazionale di sussistenza. Questo significa che una quota crescente della popolazione di bambini in tutta la regione corre il rischio di crescere nella povertà. 'Integrazione economica, mercato del lavoro e bambini' si occupa del processo d’integrazione nell’economia globale, misurata sulla base del commercio e del volume di investimenti esteri diretti. L’integrazione economica è aumentata in tutta la regione, ma è particolarmente concentrata nei paesi dell’Europa centrale e del Baltico che sono diventati membri dell’UE. L’analisi mostra perciò che i convenzionali meccanismi di adeguamento del mercato hanno impoverito i bambini nelle aree svantaggiate di molti paesi. 'Tendenze dei movimenti migratori e implicazioni per le politiche pubbliche' rileva che dagli anni ottanta in poi le migrazioni sono notevolmente aumentate in tutta la regione. Tra le ragioni di ciò vi sono la frammentazione delle nazioni, con il passaggio da 8 a 27 paesi all’inizio degli anni novanta, il che ha spinto molti ad emigrare, in molti casi per fuggire da conflitti o persecuzioni. L’articolo sottolinea l’esigenza che i governi dei paesi sia di origine sia di destinazione gestiscano meglio il fenomeno e rafforzino i canali legali di emigrazione nella regione. 'I giovani e le droghe: aumentano i rischi per la salute' indaga le conseguenze sulla salute dell’uso del tabacco, dell’alcol e degli stupefacenti illegali sui giovani, in particolare il legame tra consumo di stupefacenti e decessi di giovani nella regione.

Evidence is considered on differences in access to education and in learning achievement within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The situation inherited from the communist period is first summarized: there were some significant disparities with, for example, family background having a strong association with tertiary enrolments, as in Western countries. Analysis of the transition period focuses on the differences in access and achievement associated with household income and geographic location. Disparities are not the same across the region; in some countries, such as Russia, there are clear grounds for serious concern, but it is unlikely that any country has cause for complacency.

In some countries family status has little or no impact on the amount of tax that an individual pays. In others the income tax system plays a major role in the redistribution of income among families of different types. This paper examines the treatment of the family in European tax systems. It surveys the various instruments which are used to take account of marriage and the presence of children and describes the current systems in the 15 European Union countries. Tax systems are expected to achieve many things, and the paper discusses the tradeoffs involved in attempting to reconcile conflicting aims, with a particular focus on the impact of the various approaches on the welfare of children.

How can EMU be expected to affect the children of Europe? Macroeconomics in OECD countries has tended to become a remote and abstract subject, discussed in aggregate terms which seem far removed from the everyday experience of families. Much of this paper is concerned with making the link between macroeconomic analysis and family welfare, a link which is important for all age groups, but particularly so for children. Childhood is a vulnerable stage of the life-cycle, and children may be especially sensitive to macroeconomic shocks yet the public debate about EMU has been largely divorced from the concerns of families and children. Several proposals emerge from the analysis for improvements in our monitoring of economic performance to make them more family orientated.

The relationship between marital splits and personal income changes is of great relevance to social policy. The aim of this paper is to provide new longitudinal evidence for Britain about the relationship between marital splits and changes in personal economic well-being using data from the first four waves (1991-94) of the British Household Panel Survey. It finds that marital dissolution is associated with significant decreases in real income for separating wives and the children of separating couples, and that separating husbands do not fare as badly. The paper’s conclusions about the different experiences of separating husbands and separating wives and children echo those of earlier studies for the United States, Germany and Canada. This is interesting because of the diversity of labour markets and welfare states across these countries and suggests that outcomes may be linked to gender-related differences that are common across countries.