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This paper uses a comprehensive dataset on social spending covering the period 1984–2010 for developing countries, and the unique cross-country database on poverty to explore the poverty-reducing role of social protection during financial crises. The results indicate that financial crises are associated with increases in the rates of growth of the poverty headcount and the poverty gap of 12% and 7%, respectively. These detrimental poverty effects of financial crises are significantly lower in countries with higher social spending, suggesting the importance of social protection for poverty reduction in times of crisis and potential gains from policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]