A hallmark of every developed nation is the provision of a social safety net-a collection of public programs that deliver aid to the poor. Because of their higher rates of poverty, children are often a major beneficiary of safety net programs. Countries vary considerably in both the amount of safety net aid to children and the design of their programs. The United States provides less aid to families with children as a share of GDP (0.6 percent) than most countries: Among 37 OECD countries, only Turkey provides less, as shown in Figure 1. Countries that provide less aid to families with children have higher rates of child poverty. Among these same 37 countries, only Turkey and Costa Rica have higher child poverty rates than the United States. Why does the United States appear to be such an outlier in terms of the amount of aid it provides to families and child poverty rates? While there are likely multiple reasons, in this paper we focus on one possible explanation: Past emphasis on the negative behavioral effects of safety net programs for families over the benefits of such programs for children.

中文翻译：

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儿童和美国社会安全网：平衡成人的抑制因素和儿童的福利。


每个发达国家的一个标志是提供社会安全网——向穷人提供援助的公共计划的集合。由于儿童的贫困率较高，他们通常是安全网计划的主要受益者。各国在对儿童的安全网援助数量和项目设计方面差异很大。与大多数国家相比，美国向有孩子的家庭提供的援助较少（0.6%）：在 37 个经合组织国家中，只有土耳其提供的援助较少，如图 1 所示。向有孩子的家庭提供较少援助的国家，儿童贫困率更高。在这 37 个国家中，只有土耳其和哥斯达黎加的儿童贫困率高于美国。为什么美国在向家庭提供的援助数量和儿童贫困率方面似乎是一个异类？虽然可能有多种原因，但在本文中，我们专注于一种可能的解释：过去强调安全网计划对家庭的负面行为影响，而不是此类计划对儿童的好处。