The Kids are Alright? An Analysis of Child Benefit Using Irish Data

Abstract

Child benefit is a universal payment to all households with children in Ireland. Unlike other transfers however it is paid to the mother. This paper analyses expenditure patterns out of this transfer payment and compares them to expenditure patterns from other sources of income using the Irish Household Budget Survey. This throws light on within household resource allocation and also on the extent to which households treat different sources of income differently.Child benefit, intrahousehold, targeting