The role of social transfers in reducing the poverty risk for larger families in the European Union

Abstract

Child poverty is impacted to a great extent by family demography, with large families and single parents having a greater risk of being poor. Using the EU‐SILC microdata, we examine the extent to which social transfers reduce the risk of poverty among large families compared with smaller families in 29 European countries. Large families are defined as families with three or more children. First, we look at the reduction of poverty rates before and after the social transfers for large and small families. Second, we examine which types of social benefits are of most importance in alleviating poverty of large families. Poverty threshold is set at 60% of the national equivalent disposable income. In addition to poverty rates, poverty gaps are analysed. Results show that European countries seem to have different kinds of profiles in terms of overall child poverty reduction and whether the reduction is stronger among large families.