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The GDP cost of the lost earning potential of adults who grew up in poverty

Growing up in poverty reduces employment prospects and earnings in later life. This has a negative impact on [gross domestic product] GDP through lost productivity. Quantifying these personal and public costs opens the way to discovering the potential impact of abolishing child poverty. This report uses data from The British Cohort Study to estimate the impact of growing up in poverty on earnings and employment. It then calculates the aggregate effect of eliminating these disadvantages and therefore improving the labour market earnings of individuals. The report covers: empirical estimates of the impact of growing up in child poverty on adult earnings and employment; the role of education in the relationship between child poverty and adult earnings and employment; estimates of the overall monetary costs of child poverty; the plausibility of these estimates under different assumptions of how poverty eradication would affect labour market opportunities; and a final assessment of the GDP benefits of abolishing child poverty in terms of foregone earning, employment and benefit savings.

Growing up in poverty reduces employment prospects and earnings in later life. This has a negative impact on [gross domestic ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Blanden, Jo; Hansen, Kirstine; Machin, Stephen
Corporate authors: Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Great Britain)
Date: 2008
Geographic subjects: Europe; Great Britain; England;
Resource type: Report
Subjects: Workforce development; Employment; Labour market;

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