Child Poverty in Upper-Income Countries: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study

Few social and economic problems are more compelling than child poverty. While poverty is evident throughout the life cycle—affecting children, prime-age adults and the elderly—poverty among children has particular resonance. Child poverty captures our attention for several reasons: it is widely held that children need and deserve protection from hardship; most children have no control over their economic circumstances; deprivation during childhood can have lifelong consequences; and some of the effects of child poverty have spillover effects. Child poverty in rich countries is especially compelling, because it is rooted not so much in scarce aggregate resources but mainly in distributional arrangements, both private and public.