The Child Indicators Research has published a new study conducted by Qin Gao, Fuhua Zhai, and Yi Wang, titled "Welfare Participation Reduced Severe Child Multidimensional Poverty in Rural China: Better Targeting Can Lead to Greater Poverty Reduction."
Commonly viewed as a safety net for families in poverty, Dibao (or the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee) was found in 2018 to be associated with reductions in severe child multidimensional poverty as measured by deprivations in four or more dimensions, but the same effect was not detected in 2013. Based on the findings of Dibao's effects on severe child multidimensional poverty, this study makes a number of policy recommendations, including broadening rural Dibao’s population coverage and enhancing its targeting performance, adopting additional policies that specifically target children or families with children, and linking Dibao with these additional policies to meet the survival and developmental needs of children.
The connection between two common conceptualizations of poverty—income-based and multidimensionally-measured, respectively––are empirically examined in this study through the lens of China’s primary social assistance program, Dibao (or the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee). Using the nationally representative China Household Income Project (CHIP) 2013 and 2018 data, this study explores a seven-dimensional measurement of child multidimensional poverty as impacted by the effects of rural Dibao receipt.
Read the full study here.
