Abstract
Child benefit programs involving periodic cash transfers to parents have become increasingly embraced by governments worldwide. This paper investigates policy variance between child benefit cash transfers in Ireland and Canada, two countries with ostensibly similar welfare states. While Canadian child benefits shrink as household income grows, in Ireland cash transfers are set at a universal flat rate that is irrespective of family circumstance. On the other hand, Canadian parents receive far more generous payouts than their Irish counterparts despite means-testing. To determine the drivers of such policy divergence, I empirically test six theoretical paradigms from literature by leveraging several cross-national datasets. I identify culture, descriptive representation, framing, and interest groups as potential explanations for the gaps in Irish and Canadian child benefits observed today. My findings complicate Esping-Andersen’s original hypothesis that states clustered under the same regime-type will necessarily have similar welfare policies.
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Recommended Citation
Lee, Ang D.
(2025)
"Child Benefit Cash Transfers in Ireland and Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Welfare Policy,"
Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union:
Vol. 2025, Article 11.
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/urceu/vol2025/iss1/11
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