Determinants of Child Poverty in Uruguay: The impact of gender inequality

Abstract: The objective of this thesis is to examine the response of child poverty to wage and educational gender gaps within the household. The analysis combined household level longitudinal data, from Uruguay’s Continuous Household Survey carried on in 2012 and 2013, with the survey of Nutrition, Child Development and Health conducted in the country in the same years. We use two different models to estimate these linkages: a Probit model based on the income measurement of poverty, and a Logit model based on a multidimensional measurement of deprivations. Child poverty, both considered as an income constraint or deprivation, responds strongly to changes in wage and educational gender gaps, although the effects are larger in the first case. We find a strong and significant effect of parental education and labour status, especially for females, on child poverty. The study then calls for policy measures in favour of increasing opportunities in the labour market for women, and educational opportunities for adults in general, as an imperative tool to lower child poverty rates in the country.