The factors affecting the child poverty in Turkey

Aim of this study is to analyze the interaction of regional and time dynamics of child poverty and to submit policy recommendations for mitigation of child poverty. Firstly, comparative analysis of current situation of child poverty and policy recommendations for combating child poverty in Turkey and in EU countries provided. Then indicators of the education, health and employment status of parents, homeownership status, and presence of child labor in the household, which are seen as factors of poverty in the literature were produced based on regions of NUTS level 1 from the microdata of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions for the years between 2006 – 2018. Fixed-effect panel data regression analysis was performed with these data by using the Generalized Least Squares Estimator. The findings show that child poverty, which has a higher rate in Turkey compared to EU countries has decreased with improvements in the poverty factors in 2006 – 2018. The improvement in the education level, health, and employment status of the head of the household, reducing the number of households with child labor, and increasing the homeownership decreases the poverty rates statistically significant. In addition to the effects of poverty factors on poverty, when the relationships between them are examined with the Panel Granger Causality Test, it has been found that there are multidimensional causations among the factors of child poverty, education, health, employment, housing, and child labor. To reduce child poverty, implementations of multidimensional social policy, which consider regional differences, should continue in a coordinated and systematic manner.