This suggests that an increase in social spending within a given country reduces relative child poverty, ceteris paribus, and the estimated effect is large: according to the estimate reported in Table 2, a 1% increase in social expenditure per capita is associated with roughly a 1% reduction in the relative child poverty rate, all other things being equal. There is also a negative association between the share of social spending directed at the poorest 10% of households and the child poverty rate, implying this reduction is greater when a larger share of expenditure is directed towards the poorest. This result finds some support in the existing literature despite some mixed results (Box 3).