IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v37y2009i7p1250-1260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Examining the Impact of Taiwan's Cash Allowance Program on Private Households

Author

Listed:
  • Lai, Mun Sim
  • Orsuwan, Meechai

Abstract

Summary To fill the gap of crowding-out literature in Asia, this study analyzes the crowding-out impact of Taiwan's public old-age allowances on familial transfers to poor parents. Using government data during 1990-2003, we estimate that 1$ of public transfers displaces 30-50 cents of inter-household transfers. One explanation is that the old parents in this analysis were from poor families and they reacted strongly to allowances. However, the overall consumption, especially in luxury goods, of the poor individuals has substantially increased. This finding indicates that Taiwan's old-age allowance program does improve the welfare of older individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Lai, Mun Sim & Orsuwan, Meechai, 2009. "Examining the Impact of Taiwan's Cash Allowance Program on Private Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1250-1260, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:7:p:1250-1260
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(08)00331-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1063-1093, Nov.-Dec..
    2. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December.
    3. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-277, June.
    4. Cox, Donald & Jakubson, George, 1995. "The connection between public transfers and private interfamily transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 129-167, May.
    5. Donald Cox & Fredric Raines, 1985. "Interfamily Transfers and Income Redistribution," NBER Chapters, in: Horizontal Equity, Uncertainty, and Economic Well-Being, pages 393-426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Cox, Donald C & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1992. "Social Security and Private Transfers in Developing Countries: The Case of Peru," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 6(1), pages 155-169, January.
    7. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-1458, December.
    8. Bernheim, B Douglas & Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "The Strategic Bequest Motive," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 151-182, July.
    9. Barrientos, Armando & Gorman, Mark & Heslop, Amanda, 2003. "Old Age Poverty in Developing Countries: Contributions and Dependence in Later Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 555-570, March.
    10. Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter, 2000. "Old Age and Poverty in Developing Countries: New Policy Challenges," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2157-2168, December.
    11. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    12. Chou, Shin-Yi & Liu, Jin-Tan & Hammitt, James K., 2003. "National Health Insurance and precautionary saving: evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1873-1894, September.
    13. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1994. "Parental and Public Transfers to Young Women and Their Children," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1195-1212, December.
    14. Erik Lueth, 2003. "Can Inheritances Alleviate the Fiscal Burden of an Aging Population?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 50(2), pages 1-2.
    15. Manning, Willard G., 1998. "The logged dependent variable, heteroscedasticity, and the retransformation problem," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 283-295, June.
    16. Frances Lund, 2002. "'Crowding in' care, security and micro-enterprise formation: revisiting the role of the state in poverty reduction and in development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 681-694.
    17. Shinichi Nishiyama, 2002. "Bequests, Inter Vivos Transfers, and Wealth Distribution," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(4), pages 892-931, October.
    18. Besley, Timothy & Case, Anne, 2000. "Unnatural Experiments? Estimating the Incidence of Endogenous Policies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(467), pages 672-694, November.
    19. Pollak, Robert A, 1988. "Tied Transfers and Paternalistic Preferences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(2), pages 240-244, May.
    20. Cox, Donald, 1987. "Motives for Private Income Transfers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 508-546, June.
    21. Anette Reil-Held, 2006. "Crowding out or crowding in? Public and private transfers in Germany [Substituts ou compléments? Transferts publics et privés en Allemagne]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 263-280, September.
    22. Schoeni, Robert F, 2002. "Does Unemployment Insurance Displace Familial Assistance?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 110(1-2), pages 99-119, January.
    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. Nikolov, Plamen & Bonci, Matthew, 2020. "Do public program benefits crowd out private transfers in developing countries? A critical review of recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Kristopher Gerardi & Yuping Tsai, 2014. "The Effect of Social Entitlement Programmes on Private Transfers: New Evidence of Crowding Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 721-746, October.
    3. Yang, Feng-An & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2023. "Impact of a pension program on healthcare utilization among older farmers: Empirical evidence from health claims data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. An-Chi Tung & Nicole Mun Sim Lai, 2011. "Living arrangements and support for the elderly in Taiwan," Chapters, in: Ronald Lee & Andrew Mason (ed.), Population Aging and the Generational Economy, chapter 28, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Sandra García & Jorge Cuartas, 2017. "With a Little Help from my Friends: the Multiplier Effect of Public Subsidies through Private Support," Documentos de trabajo 17647, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    6. Hungerman, Daniel M., 2014. "Public goods, hidden income, and tax evasion: Some nonstandard results from the warm-glow model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 188-202.
    7. Lai, Nicole Mun Sim & Tung, An-Chi, 2015. "Who supports the elderly? The changing economic lifecycle reallocation in Taiwan, 1985 and 2005," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 63-68.

    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. Nikolov, Plamen & Bonci, Matthew, 2020. "Do public program benefits crowd out private transfers in developing countries? A critical review of recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Aldieri, Luigi & Fiorillo, Damiano, 2015. "Private monetary transfers and altruism: An empirical investigation on Italian families," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    3. Kristopher Gerardi & Yuping Tsai, 2014. "The Effect of Social Entitlement Programmes on Private Transfers: New Evidence of Crowding Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 721-746, October.
    4. Sandra García & Jorge Cuartas, 2017. "With a Little Help from my Friends: the Multiplier Effect of Public Subsidies through Private Support," Documentos de trabajo 17647, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    5. Grobon, Sébastien & Wolff, François-Charles, 2024. "Do public scholarships crowd out parental transfers? Evidence at the intensive margin from France," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Steven J. Haider & Kathleen McGarry, 2005. "Recent Trends in Resource Sharing Among the Poor," NBER Working Papers 11612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Anette Reil-Held, 2006. "Crowding out or crowding in? Public and private transfers in Germany [Substituts ou compléments? Transferts publics et privés en Allemagne]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 263-280, September.
    8. Sébastien Grobon & François-Charles Wolff, 2022. "Do public scholarships crowd out parental transfers? Evidence from France," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22009, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    9. Christine Ho, 2015. "Grandchild care, intergenerational transfers, and grandparents’ labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 359-384, June.
    10. Pelek, Selin & Polat, Sezgin, 2019. "Exploring inter-household transfers:An assessment using panel data from Turkey," GIAM Working Papers 00-0, Galatasaray University Economic Research Center.
    11. Schoeni, Robert F, 2002. "Does Unemployment Insurance Displace Familial Assistance?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 110(1-2), pages 99-119, January.
    12. Kazianga, H., 2006. "Motives for household private transfers in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 73-117, February.
    13. Kananurak, Papar & Sirisankanan, Aeggarchat, 2016. "Do Public Transfers Crowd-out Private Transfers? Evidence from the Thai Socio-Economic Panel Survey," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 23(2), December.
    14. Donald Cox & Oded Stark, 2007. "On the Demand for Grandchildren: Tied Transfers and the Demonstration Effect," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Happiness, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Ernesto Villanueva, 2001. "Parental altruism under imperfect information: Theory and evidence," Economics Working Papers 566, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Sep 2002.
    16. Pedro Orraca-Romano, 2015. "Does access to free health insurance crowd-out private transfers? Evidence from Mexico’s Seguro Popular," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, December.
    17. Marta Melguizo Garde, 2007. "La motivación de las transmisiones lucrativas entre generaciones de una familia: modelos teóricos y evidencia empírica," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 181(2), pages 81-118, June.
    18. Grimm, Michael & Hartwig, Renate & Reitmann, Ann-Kristin & Bocoum, Fadima Yaya, 2021. "Inter-household transfers: An empirical investigation of the income-transfer relationship with novel data from Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    19. Hsin-Ling Hsieh & Shin-Yi Chou & Echu Liu & Hsien-Ming Lien, 2015. "Strengthening or Weakening? The Impact of Universal Health Insurance on Intergenerational Coresidence in Taiwan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 883-904, June.
    20. Juarez, Laura, 2009. "Crowding out of private support to the elderly: Evidence from a demogrant in Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 454-463, April.

    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:37:y:2009:i:7:p:1250-1260. 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.