TY - JOUR T1 - Why Are Child Poverty Rates Higher in Britain than in Germany? JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 441 LP - 465 DO - 10.3368/jhr.XXXVIII.2.441 VL - XXXVIII IS - 2 AU - Stephen P. Jenkins AU - Christian Schluter Y1 - 2003/03/31 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXVIII/2/441.abstract N2 - We analyze why child poverty rates were much higher in Britain than in Western Germany during the 1990s, using a framework focusing on poverty transition rates. Child poverty exit rates were significantly lower, and poverty entry rates significantly higher, in Britain. We decompose these cross-national differences into differences in the prevalence of “trigger events” (changes in household composition, household labor market attachment, and labor earnings), and differences in the chances of making a poverty transition conditional on experiencing a trigger event. The latter are the most important in accounting for the cross-national differences in poverty exit and entry rates. ER -