The main objective of the study was to understand the redistributive effects of social and fiscal policies on children in Belarus. Accordingly, researchers considered not only monetary poverty but also multidimensional child poverty (MDCP).

This paper seeks to inform the understanding of the distributional impact of taxes and public spending on children in Belarus.

This paper examines the impact of the recent recession in Belarus on poverty and broader measures of household welfare and compares the recent recession episode to previous economic crises in Belarus.

This paper estimates poverty in Belarus using annual data of the Sample Household Survey on Living Standards from 2017-2018.

This paper studies the incidence and determinants of poverty in Belarus using data from yearly Household Budget Surveys for 2009-2016. The poverty is evaluated from consumption perspective applying the cost of basic needs approach and using food and absolute poverty lines. During last two years, absolute poverty in Belarus has increased twofold and reached 29% of the population.

The paper employs the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) framework to present a first attempt at a comprehensive fiscal incidence analysis for Belarus, encompassing both the revenue and expenditures components of the fiscal system, including direct and indirect taxes, as well as direct, indirect and in-kind transfers. The analysis reveals that fiscal policies in Belarus effectively redistribute income from the top to the bottom of the income distribution. Direct transfers, in particular pensions, are the most equalizing and pro-poor of the fiscal interventions – direct transfers and direct taxes lower the national poverty headcount by 17 percentage points and lower the Gini index of inequality from 0.407 to 0.267. Some of the indirect taxes, on the other hand, are regressive, and indirect transfers – poorly targeted, such that the effect of these components of the fiscal system is not equalizing. Finally, the cost-efficiency of different parts of the fiscal system in Belarus varies considerably. Unemployment benefits, pensions and child benefits are found to be cost-efficient, while indirect subsidies are highly cost-inefficient. The analysis points towards possible reforms that would allow to reduce poverty and inequality more efficiently.