Social spending, child deprivation and family structure: a multilevel study in 31 European countries Pérez Corral, Antonio Luis Moreno Mínguez, Almudena Child well-being Inequality Poverty The purpose of this article is to examine the role of social spending policies in reducing child deprivation and inequality between family structures. In particular, based on the idea that the redistributive effects of such policies affect economic well-being in childhood, we analyse whether three functions of social spending (family/children, housing/social exclusion and sickness/disability) are associated with the reduction of different types of child deprivation (nutrition, clothing, education, leisure and social life) in Europe. We employ multilevel techniques for this purpose. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that greater social spending on sickness/disability benefits can reduce the risk of child deprivation, particularly for single-parent families, although we cannot exclude the possibility that this association is spurious. Family/children benefits and housing/social exclusion benefits seem to have a somewhat more limited effect but still contribute to reducing inequalities between single-parent and two-parent families in some types of deprivation. 2025-07-15T07:15:35Z 2025-07-15T07:15:35Z 2025-03-15 journal article Pérez-Corral, A.L., Moreno-Mínguez, A. Social spending, child deprivation and family structure: a multilevel study in 31 European countries. Int Rev Econ 72, 8 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-025-00483-0 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/105324 10.1007/s12232-025-00483-0 eng open access Springer Nature