Measuring Child Vulnerability to Poverty

The aim of measuring vulnerability of children to poverty is to estimate the probability 01 being poor according to the household’s head socioeconomic characteristics. The estimates of the vulnerability to poverty can be used as a guideline to the policymakers to allocate the public subsidies to the poor children and their families. Children are at a higher risk of poverty than adults, regardless of place and time. Since they are not independent economic actors by themselves, they rely on the distribution of resources by their parents, household or community members to provide their basic needs. In this study, we use the logit model to measure degree of vulnerability of children to poverty in urban areas in Iran. Findings of this study can provide a guideline for subsidy targeting. Data used in this study is pooled micro-data of household expenditure surveys from 1983- 2007, collected by Statistical Center of Iran. Finding & This approach to identify the degree of vulnerability of children to poverty can be used as a reliable proxy and an alternative method to identify the children in poverty, once there is no comprehensive data bank on the household's well-being. Some of the findings show that the larger the size of the households and number of children, the higher is the degree of vulnerability of children to poverty. The level of education of the head of household is another important determinant of vulnerability of children to poverty. The higher is the education level of the household’s head the lower is the children vulnerability to poverty. Employment status is another important determinant of vulnerability to poverty. Children living in the households whose heads are unemployed are more vulnerable to poverty than those otherwise. Age and gender of the head of households are two main determinants of children vulnerability.