Doing better for children.

Also available in French under the title: Assurer le bien-être des enfants.

Includes bibliographical references.

Executive Summary -- 1. Summary of Key Findings -- Introduction -- Structure and summary of the report -- How to invest to enhance child well-being -- What to do across a child's life cycle -- Things to do less of and things to keep an eye on -- 2. Comparative Child Well-being across the OECD -- Introduction -- An overview of child well-being across OECD member countries -- What is child well-being? -- A closer look at child well-being -- Selecting child well-being dimensions and indicators -- The OECD child well-being indicator rationalised and compared -- Summary -- References -- Annex 2. A1. Relationships between the OECD Child Well-being Indicators -- 3. Social Spending across the Child's Life Cycle -- Introduction -- Why consider social spending on children by age? -- The profiling method and data sources -- Limitations -- Discussion of the child age-spending profiles -- Distributional aspects of tax-benefit policy across the child's life cycle -- Method -- Countries considered -- Eight-country comparison of net income and net transfers by family earned income level -- Summary -- Notes -- References -- 4. From Conception to Kindergarten -- Introduction -- Pre-natal period -- Birth -- Post-natal period -- Summary -- Notes -- References -- 5. Child Well-being and Single Parenthood -- Introduction -- Family structure across the OECD -- Why might single-parent family structure matter for enhancing child well-being? -- What is the effect on children of growing up in a single-parent family? -- A cross-OECD meta-analysis -- Searching for causality -- Policy implications -- Summary -- Notes -- References -- 6. Childhood and Inter-generational Mobility -- Introduction -- What's wrong with inter-generational inequality? -- How much inter-generational inequality is there and how has it been changing over time? -- Causes of inter-generational inequality -- Is the degree of inter-generational inequality too high, too low, or just right? -- Summary -- Notes -- References -- 7. Doing Better for Children: The Way Forward -- Introduction -- The range of policy choices influencing child well-being -- OECD child well-being measures and child policy -- Policy recommendations to improve child well-being -- Notes -- References.

"The well-being of children is high on the policy agenda across the OECD. But what is the actual state of child well-being today? How much are governments spending on children and are they spending it at the right times? What social and family policies have the most impact during children's earliest years? Is growing up in a single-parent household detrimental to children? Is inequality that persists across generations a threat to child well-being? Doing Better for Children addresses these questions and more."--OECD website.