The Role of Government Transfers in the Child Poverty Gap by Race and Ethnicity: A Focus on Black, Latino, and White Children
Despite advances in the battle against child poverty in recent decades, there has been little improvement in reducing disparities in child poverty by race and ethnicity. Black and Latino children continue to be more than twice as likely as White children to live in poverty. This brief provides insights into the impact of government assistance on shaping racial and ethnic inequities in child poverty. We offer an update to a prior Center on Poverty and Social Policy analysis of the Black-White child poverty gap and introduce new findings on the Latino-White child poverty gap. We analyze new data from 2022, revealing that the Black-White child poverty gap remains largely unchanged compared to the pre-pandemic period, with government transfers showing limited effectiveness in closing this gap. We also find a similar pattern applies to the Latino-White child poverty gap, but in fact, government transfers seem to exacerbate this gap rather than alleviate it or leave it unchanged.
Key Findings
In 2022, government transfers and tax credits reduced child poverty rates across all racial and ethnic groups, but they did not narrow the Black-White child poverty gap and they actually exacerbated the Latino-White child poverty gap.
In-kind transfers disproportionately benefit Black children, while cash-based programs disproportionately benefit White children.
Latino children benefit the least from both kinds of transfers. Research shows that this is in part due to restrictive eligibility requirements that exclude children in mixed-status immigrant families.
This is a collaboration between the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at Brandeis University.
Suggested Citation
Lee, Jiwan, Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Sophie Collyer, Pamela Joshi, Neeraj Kaushal, Abigail N. Walters, and Christopher Wimer. 2024. “The Role of Government Transfers in the Child Poverty Gap by Race and Ethnicity: A Focus on Black, Latino, and White Children.” Poverty and Social Policy Brief, vol. 8, no. 2. New York City and Waltham, MA: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University and Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy, Brandeis University.