Banco de Portugal Economic Studies-Vol. VIII, No. 4
Portugal
Abstract
One fifth of the children in Portugal live in households at risk of poverty, and reforms to strengthen fiscal support to families with children are often being proposed by scholars and policy makers. This paper uses the microsimulation model EUROMOD and data from the EUSILC to assess the power of selected tax and benefit rules currently in place to reduce child poverty and to simulate hypothetical changes to these rules in a revenue-neutral set-up. To obtain a comprehensive view of the effects of these hypothetical policy changes, their impacts on the labour market are also quantified using a discrete choice labour supply model. Considering a parametric reform with a limited cost, the Rendimento social de inserção, the Portuguese minimum income benefit, is the most efficient instrument to reduce child poverty, being also the one generating higher labour market disincentives.
