The Dynamics of Child Poverty: Britain and Germany Compared

Abstract

We compare patterns of movements into and out of poverty by children in Britain and Western Germany using data from the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel for the period 1992-97. In Britain poverty persistence was greater, and poverty exit rates in particular were lower, than in Western Germany. In both countries, poverty was particularly persistent among children in lone parent households and households with a non-working head. Events such as family formation and dissolution, and changes in household labour market attachment, were associated with child poverty transitions in the direction expected, and in both countries. However a large fraction of the observed poverty transitions were not accounted for by these events. By contrast, changes in labour earnings not necessarily associated with a job change accounted for a large proportion of poverty transitions.