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Public Transfers and Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Program Contribution to the Exit Rate from Poverty to Children and the Elderly

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  • Marisa Bucheli

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de la República in Uruguay)

Abstract

In Uruguay, social spending reduces poverty. The aim of this paper is to compare its performance for children and the elderly. The main motivation is that in Uruguay, as in the rest of Latin America, poverty affects mostly children, even after the recent period of fall in poverty. The methodological strategy consists on the estimation of the effect of transfers on the poverty exit rate and its decomposition in the coverage effect and the amount effect. The main conclusions are as follows: a) households with children (elder) are the less (more) likely to leave poverty, b) the reason is the per capita amount of the transfer received by each household type and not the coverage, c) the effectiveness of the amount is lower for households with children than with elders because poverty is more intense for the former, d) households in the same poverty conditions are less likely to be lifted out of poverty when they are composed by children than by elders because the conditional transfers directed to children are lower than the assistance pensions for the elders.

Suggested Citation

  • Marisa Bucheli, 2015. "Public Transfers and Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Program Contribution to the Exit Rate from Poverty to Children and the Elderly," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 27, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:tul:ceqwps:27
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    Cited by:

    1. Margarita Beneke & Nora Lustig, 2015. "El Impacto de los Impuestos y el Gasto Social en la Desigualdad y la Pobreza en El Salvador," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 26, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    2. Nora Lustig, 2015. "Fiscal Policy and Ethno-Racial Inequality in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala and Uruguay," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 22, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    3. Higgins, Sean & Lustig, Nora, 2016. "Can a poverty-reducing and progressive tax and transfer system hurt the poor?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 63-75.
    4. Sean Higgins & Nora Lustig, 2015. "Can Poverty-Reducing and Progressive Tax and Transfer System Hurt the Poor?," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1333, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Nora Lustig, 2015. "The Redistributive Impactive of Government Spending on Education and Health Evidence from Thirteen Developing Countries in the Commitment to Equity Project," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 30, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    6. Margarita Beneke & Nora Lustig, 2015. "El Impacto de los Impuestos y el Gasto Social en la Desigualdad y la Pobreza en El Salvador," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1326, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    7. Nora Lustig, 2015. "The Redistributive Impactive of Government Spending on Education and Health Evidence from Thirteen Developing Countries in the Commitment to Equity Project," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1330, Tulane University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    poverty; public transfers; social spending; children;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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