China & World Economy / 82–105, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022

Exploring China’s Potential Child Poverty

Yangyang Shen, Sabina Alkire

Abstract

This paper estimates child poverty in China using 2018 data from the China Household Income Project. Applying the Alkire–Foster drawer approach, we constructed a multidimensional poverty indicator system that accounted for multiple factors contributing to a child’s development and well-being, based on which we estimated multidimensional poverty experienced by children. Children’s poverty varied by age, gender, rural/urban settings, and geographic region. By extending the Alkire–Foster drawer approach, two important features of child poverty in China were found, which had normally been neglected by per capita poverty measures: poor children in nonpoor families and unequal allocations to different children within the same families. The results showed that more than 40 percent of multidimensionally poor children lived in nonpoor families. Unequal resource allocation within families was observed in half of the families. These two features of child poverty require more policy attention and the Chinese government should prioritize addressing multidimensional child poverty.