在1988年至2009年間,男性單親家戶兒童貧窮率增加了約33%的情形下,政府及社福單位顯然有必要進一步瞭解男性單親家戶兒童貧窮的狀況。目前關於男性單親家戶兒童貧窮的研究如鳳毛鱗爪(郭靜晃、吳幸玲,2003),僅見薛承泰(2008)在其研究中有附帶研究。除了首次提供臺灣從1988年至2009年生活於男性單親家戶的兒童貧窮率外,呼應薛承泰(2008),本文首次進行以夏普利值分解的方法,來分析政府移轉對男性單親家戶兒童貧窮率的影響。本文的實證結果發現:1.政府的移轉,並不是單年度內男性單親家戶兒童貧窮率的主要決定因素。但是,和何華欽(1997)的老人家戶研究相反,在超過4/5的研究年度裡,政 府的移轉不僅沒有降低,反而是推升了生活於男性單親家戶兒童的貧窮率;2.政府移轉的變化,並不是跨年度男性單親家戶兒童貧窮率變動的主要決定因素。政府移轉的變化對該貧窮率的變動,似乎沒有明顯的影響方向。但是,2008-2009年的跨年度影響方向和2009年公布的「特殊境遇家庭扶助條例」可能有助降低單親家戶兒童貧窮率的預期一致。
From 1988 to 2009, the poverty rate of children in male single parent households increased by about 33%. Clearly there is a need for the government and social welfare organizations in Taiwan to understand more about the poverty status of children living in male single parent households. The existing literature on this issue is scarce (Kuo and Wu, 2003) with the study of Hsueh (2008) as an exception. For the first time, this current study provides the poverty rate of children living in male single parent households from 1988 to 2009. More importantly, echoing Hsueh's (2008) suggestion, this study for the first time adopts the Shapley value decomposition method to analyze the influence of government transfer on the poverty rate of children living in male single parent households. The empirical results found in this study are as follows: 1. Government transfer was not the main determinant of the poverty rate of children living in male single parent households. However, contrary to Ho's (2007) study on elderly households, in more than four-fifths of the studied years, government transfer not only failed to reduce but, in fact, boosted the child poverty rate. 2. Changes of government transfer were not the most important determinant of changes of the poverty rate of children living in male single parent households. In addition the impact on changes in the child poverty rates caused by changes of government transfer had no definite direction. However the 2008-2009 impact direction is consistent with the expectation that the Statute For Providing Aid To Families in Dire Straits announced in 2009 may help reduce the poverty rate of children in male single parent households.