IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v72y2015icp277-295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stopped in the Name of the Law: Administrative Burden and its Implications for Cash Transfer Program Effectiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Heinrich, Carolyn J.
  • Brill, Robert

Abstract

Cash transfer programs have achieved wide-ranging success in reducing poverty, yet there is little empirical research on how program rules and administrative capacity might limit program effectiveness. We examine administrative burden and quantify its implications for grant access and impacts in the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) program, as the age of eligibility and application requirements changed over time. We find that approximately 60% of the sampled children experienced an interruption or disconnection in cash transfer receipt, and that both timing and “dosage” loss are associated with adolescent engagement in risky behaviors, and for females, lower educational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinrich, Carolyn J. & Brill, Robert, 2015. "Stopped in the Name of the Law: Administrative Burden and its Implications for Cash Transfer Program Effectiveness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 277-295.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:72:y:2015:i:c:p:277-295
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.03.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15000741
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.03.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shore-Sheppard Lara D., 2008. "Stemming the Tide? The Effect of Expanding Medicaid Eligibility On Health Insurance Coverage," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-35, July.
    2. Anne Case & Victoria Hosegood & Frances Lund, 2005. "The reach and impact of Child Support Grants: evidence from KwaZulu-Natal," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 467-482.
    3. Kluve, Jochen & Schneider, Hilmar & Uhlendorff, Arne & Zhao, Zhong, 2007. "Evaluating Continuous Training Programs Using the Generalized Propensity Score," IZA Discussion Papers 3255, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Álvarez, Carola & Devoto, Florencia & Winters, Paul, 2008. "Why do Beneficiaries Leave the Safety Net in Mexico? A Study of the Effects of Conditionality on Dropouts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 641-658, April.
    5. Virginia Hernanz & Franck Malherbet & Michele Pellizzari, 2004. "Take-Up of Welfare Benefits in OECD Countries: A Review of the Evidence," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 17, OECD Publishing.
    6. Ariel Fiszbein & Norbert Schady & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Margaret Grosh & Niall Keleher & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597, December.
    7. Sudhanshu Handa & Carolyn Huang & Nicola Hypher & Clarissa Teixeira & Fabio V. Soares & Benjamin Davis, 2012. "Targeting effectiveness of social cash transfer programmes in three African countries," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 78-108, March.
    8. Cohen, John M. & Grindle, Merilee S. & Walker, S. Tjip, 1985. "Foreign aid and conditions precedent: Political and bureaucratic dimensions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(12), pages 1211-1230, December.
    9. Jef L. Leroy & Marie Ruel & Ellen Verhofstadt, 2009. "The impact of conditional cash transfer programmes on child nutrition: a review of evidence using a programme theory framework," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 103-129, June.
    10. Joakim Palme & Walter Korpi, 1998. "The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western Countries," LIS Working papers 174, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Laura B. Rawlings, 2005. "Evaluating the Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 29-55.
    12. Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2006. "Making Conditional Cash Transfer Programs More Efficient: Designing for Maximum Effect of the Conditionality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 1-29.
    13. Jochen Kluve & Hilmar Schneider & Arne Uhlendorff & Zhong Zhao, 2012. "Evaluating continuous training programmes by using the generalized propensity score," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 175(2), pages 587-617, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kotlikoff, Laurence J. & Lagarda, Guillermo & Marin, Gabriel, 2023. "A Personalized VAT with Capital Transfers: A Reform to Protect Low-Income Households in Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12985, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Heinrich, Carolyn J. & Knowles, Matthew T., 2020. "A fine predicament: Conditioning, compliance and consequences in a labeled cash transfer program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Shreya Biswas & Upasak Das, 2021. "Whats the worth of a promise? Evaluating the indirect effects of a program to reduce early marriage in India," Papers 2104.12215, arXiv.org.
    4. Porisky, Alesha & Mohamed, Tahira Shariff & Muthui, Patrick Mutinda, 2023. "Kenya’s ‘Universal’ social pension: The politics of registration in Marsabit County," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Halling, Aske & Bækgaard, Martin, 2022. "Administrative Burden in Citizen-State Interactions: A Systematic Literature Review," OSF Preprints 26xdj, Center for Open Science.
    6. Helen Elizabeth Denise Burchett & Dylan Kneale & Sally Griffin & Málica de Melo & Joelma Joaquim Picardo & Rebecca S. French, 2022. "Which Structural Interventions for Adolescent Contraceptive Use Have Been Evaluated in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-31, September.
    7. Pfutze, Tobias, 2019. "Should program graduation be better targeted? The other schooling outcomes of Mexico’s Oportunidades," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Carolyn J. Heinrich & Sayil Camacho & Sarah Clark Henderson & Mónica Hernández & Ela Joshi, 2022. "Consequences of Administrative Burden for Social Safety Nets that Support the Healthy Development of Children," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 11-44, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Zhao & Bauchet, Jonathan & Steele, Diana & Godoy, Ricardo & Radel, Claudia & Zanotti, Laura, 2017. "Comparison of Direct Transfers for Human Capital Development and Environmental Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 498-517.
    2. Martin Persson, U. & Alpízar, Francisco, 2013. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Payments for Environmental Services—A Conceptual Framework for Explaining and Judging Differences in Outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 124-137.
    3. Richard Akresh & Damien de Walque & Harounan Kazianga, 2013. "Cash Transfers and Child Schooling: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Conditionality," Economics Working Paper Series 1301, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.
    4. Tagel Gebrehiwot & Carolina Castilla, 2018. "Do safety net transfers improve household diets and reduce undernutrition? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Working Papers PMMA 2018-03, PEP-PMMA.
    5. Bauchet, Jonathan & Undurraga, Eduardo A. & Reyes-García, Victoria & Behrman, Jere R. & Godoy, Ricardo A., 2018. "Conditional cash transfers for primary education: Which children are left out?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-12.
    6. Juan M. Villa, 2014. "The length of exposure to antipoverty transfer programmes: what is the relevance for children's human capital formation?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 20614, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    7. Gatenio Gabel, Shirley, 2012. "Social protection and children in developing countries," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 537-545.
    8. Guush Berhane & Daniel O. Gilligan & John Hoddinott & Neha Kumar & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Can Social Protection Work in Africa? The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-26.
    9. Fernald, Lia C.H. & Hidrobo, Melissa, 2011. "Effect of Ecuador's cash transfer program (Bono de Desarrollo Humano) on child development in infants and toddlers: A randomized effectiveness trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(9), pages 1437-1446, May.
    10. Juan M. Villa, 2018. "The continuous treatment effect of an antipoverty program on children's educational attainment: Colombia's Familias en Accion," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 1239-1262, August.
    11. Noémi Kreif & Richard Grieve & Iván Díaz & David Harrison, 2015. "Evaluation of the Effect of a Continuous Treatment: A Machine Learning Approach with an Application to Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(9), pages 1213-1228, September.
    12. Kyle Colangelo & Ying-Ying Lee, 2019. "Double debiased machine learning nonparametric inference with continuous treatments," CeMMAP working papers CWP72/19, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    13. Jerzy Michalek & Pavel Ciaian & d’Artis Kancs, 2014. "Capitalization of the Single Payment Scheme into Land Value: Generalized Propensity Score Evidence from the European Union," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(2), pages 260-289.
    14. Hilal Atasoy & Rajiv D. Banker & Paul A. Pavlou, 2016. "On the Longitudinal Effects of IT Use on Firm-Level Employment," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 6-26, March.
    15. Becker, Sascha O. & Egger, Peter H. & von Ehrlich, Maximilian, 2012. "Too much of a good thing? On the growth effects of the EU's regional policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 648-668.
    16. Marina Bassi & Matías Busso & Sergio Urzúa & Jaime Vargas, 2012. "Disconnected: Skills, Education, and Employment in Latin America," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 79504, February.
    17. Seth R. Gitter & Bradford L. Barham, 2008. "Women's Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, and Schooling in Nicaragua," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(2), pages 271-290, May.
    18. M. Caridad Araujo & Mariano Bosch & Norbert Schady, 2017. "Can Cash Transfers Help Households Escape an Intergenerational Poverty Trap?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 357-382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Hans-Peter Kohler & Rebecca L. Thornton, 2012. "Conditional Cash Transfers and HIV/AIDS Prevention: Unconditionally Promising?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 165-190.
    20. Rüdiger Wapler & Daniel Werner & Katja Wolf, 2018. "Active labour market policies in Germany: do regional labour markets benefit?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(51), pages 5561-5578, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:72:y:2015:i:c:p:277-295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.