Measuring Child Poverty and Well-Being: A Literature Review

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance Working Paper Series No. 2008/WP001

30 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2008

See all articles by Keetie Roelen

Keetie Roelen

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Franziska Gassmann

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Date Written: January 2008

Abstract

Due to the acknowledgment that children deserve special focus in poverty measurement, the measurement of child poverty and well-being has received increasing attention within the academic and policy arena. The dependence of children on their direct environment for the provision of basic needs, the child-specific requirements in terms of their basic needs and the request for specific information for the formulation of child-focused policies are important reasons calling for the development of child poverty approaches. A range of approaches has been developed in the last decade to meet the need for a measurement tool especially geared to capture children and internalize their specific needs. Each of these approaches differ with respect to their chosen identification mechanism, aggregation methodology and data requirements. Decisions made on all these elements involve a set of advantages and disadvantages and have consequences for the usefulness of the approach to serve a specific purpose or audience. This review provides a structural overview of the current state of literature on the measurement of child poverty and well-being. We conclude that there are no perfect approaches for the measurement of child poverty and that each approach is the result of a specific conceptual framework in accordance with the availability of resources.

Keywords: child poverty, poverty measurement

Suggested Citation

Roelen, Keetie and Gassmann, Franziska, Measuring Child Poverty and Well-Being: A Literature Review (January 2008). Maastricht Graduate School of Governance Working Paper Series No. 2008/WP001, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1105652 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1105652

Keetie Roelen (Contact Author)

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
PO Box 616
Maastricht, 6200MD
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://www.governance.unimaas.nl

Franziska Gassmann

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
2,326
Abstract Views
6,963
Rank
13,272
PlumX Metrics