解構青年貧窮：檢視家戶組成、社會福利與市場等對22國青年貧窮的影響

Decomposing Youth Poverty in 22 Countries—Contributions of Household Composition, Social Welfare, and the Market to Cross-national Variations in Youth Poverty

本文使用Luxembourg Income Study資料庫，探討造成22個國家青年貧窮率差異的結構性因素。本研究採用解構法，檢視的三大結構因素為家戶組成、社會福利、與市場收入相對貧窮率，並以台灣為參照國家，與21個工業化國家進行比較。主要的研究目標是解構三大結構性因素對青年貧窮率差異的相對影響。根據資料分析結果，北歐青年貧窮率最高，雖然其社會福利有效地降低貧窮，但是北歐青年離家甚早，加上這些青年的市場收入很低，因此仍有高比例的北歐青年面臨貧窮問題。相對而言，台灣、南韓、日本等東亞國家，即使社會福利有限，由於成年子女與父母同堂的居住安排普遍，並且市場收入貧窮率較低，因此東亞青年貧窮率遠低於許多西方國家。

Based on 2010 Luxembourg Income Study data, this research examines cross-national patterns of rates of youth poverty, using Taiwan as a representative of East Asian welfare regimes and comparing it to 21 countries. With decomposition analyses, I investigate the ways in which three structural factors—household composition, market income poverty, and social welfare—contribute to divergent patterns of youth poverty. Taiwan is a society in which intergenerational coresidence is prevalent but in which young adults and young parents are eligible for limited social provisions. The results show that in Scandinavian countries, leaving the parental home is associated with high levels of poverty, although generous social provisions offset some of the poverty risks of young adults. In East Asian countries, despite limited welfare benefits, the prevalence of intergenerational coresidence and lower levels of market income poverty have strong mitigating effects on youth poverty.