Money or Kindergarten? Distributive Effects of Cash Versus In-Kind Family Transfers for Young Children

Michael Försteri ; Gerlinde Verbistii iOECDiiUniversity of Antwerp

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

关键词: income distribution;    child poverty;    cash and in-kind transfers;    family policy;   

DOI  :  https://doi.org/10.1787/5k92vxbgpmnt-en

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: OECD iLibrary

【 摘 要 】

Public support to families with pre-school children can be in the form of cash benefits (e.g. child allowances) or of “in-kind” support (e.g. care services such as kindergartens). The mix of these support measures varies greatly across OECD countries, from a cash / in-kind composition of 10%/90% to 80%/20%. This paper imputes the value of services into an “extended” household income and compares the resulting distributive patterns and the redistributive effect of these two strands of family policies. On average, cash and in-kind transfers each constitute 7 – 8% of the incomes of families with young children. Both instruments are redistributive. Cash transfers reduce child poverty by one third, with the estimated impacts in Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Hungary and Finland performing above average. When services are accounted for, child poverty falls by one quarter and poverty among children enrolled in childcare is more than halved. This reduction is highest in Belgium, France, Hungary, Iceland and Sweden.