Introduction

The chapters in this volume contain many valuable insights for policy makers and a rich unfinished research agenda for academics and think tanks interested in similar issues. Most of the contributors discuss the policy implications of their findings and formulate some detailed policy suggestions. This section presents an overview of some of the most important findings, policy discussions and research agendas covered. Despite the variety of national differences in economic and policy structures, several policy findings emerge which apply across a wide range of nations and which therefore bear consideration in future attempts to reduce child poverty.

Trends in child poverty and child well-being

Several contributions in this volume reveal a wide range of child poverty rates in countries that are at broadly similar levels of economic development. According to Bradbury and Jäntti relative child poverty rates in the OECD member states varied in the mid-1990s from 3.4% in Finland to 26.3% in the United States (US). Within the European Union (EU), relative child poverty rates ranged from 3.4% in Finland to 21.3% in the United Kingdom (UK). The Nordic countries all had remarkably low levels of relative child poverty, which remained constantly below 5% throughout the 1990s. The Benelux countries and France had slightly higher child poverty rates, but the highest levels of relative child poverty among the continental EU member states were found in Germany, Spain, and, especially, Italy. The relative child poverty rates in these countries had increased during the early 1990s. The highest relative child poverty rate within the EU was found in the UK. This is due to the sharp increases in relative child poverty in the UK during the second half of the 1980s.

As for the transition economies of Central and Eastern European countries, Bradbury and Jäntti report relatively high and increasing relative child poverty rates for both Hungary and Poland during the first half of the 1990s. Yet, the lowest levels of relative child poverty among all the industrialised countries covered by this study are reported for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.