Abstract:
In this paper we describe and explain country differences in the effect of gender on the risk to become poor, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study on 22 industrialized countries. Although in most countries women are more likely to become poor than men, this is not the case for all countries. Composition effects explain 18 percent of the country differences: Differences in the educational level of the population are most important, whereas labor market participation plays a smaller role. Country characteristics, especially economic growth and social-democratic tradition, explain between 29 and 36 percent of the country differences in the gender-poverty-gap. Both composition effects and country characteristics are better suited to explain disadvantages of women than disadvantages of men.
