IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v11y2005i2p103-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Assistance, Gender, And The Aged In South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Justine Burns
  • Malcolm Keswell
  • Murray Leibbrandt

Abstract

This paper reviews the history of the noncontributory social pension in South Africa, as well as recent work on the distributional and poverty-alleviating effects of this program. The pension has a strong gender dimension, reaching three times as many women as men, and has an unambiguous impact on reducing household poverty, particularly among Black South African households. The existing literature also suggests that the pension reaches unintended beneficiaries within households and that strongly gender-differentiated patterns emerge both in the sharing of pension incomes by pensioners and in the behavioral responses of other household members to pension receipt.

Suggested Citation

  • Justine Burns & Malcolm Keswell & Murray Leibbrandt, 2005. "Social Assistance, Gender, And The Aged In South Africa," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 103-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:103-115
    DOI: 10.1080/13545700500115944
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545700500115944
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13545700500115944?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. Leibbrandt, Murray & Woolard, Christopher & Woolard, Ingrid, 2000. "The Contribution of Income Components to Income Inequality in the Rural Former Homelands of South Africa: A Decomposable Gini Analysis," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 9(1), pages 79-99, March.
    2. Case, Anne & Deaton, Angus, 1998. "Large Cash Transfers to the Elderly in South Africa," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(450), pages 1330-1361, September.
    3. Leibbrandt, M.V. & Woolard, C.D. & Woolard, I.D., 1996. "The Contribution of Income Components to Income Inequality in South Africa: A Decomposable Gini Analysis," Papers 125, World Bank - Living Standards Measurement.
    4. Esther Duflo, 2000. "Child Health and Household Resources in South Africa: Evidence from the Old Age Pension Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 393-398, May.
    5. Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi & Knight, John, 2004. "Unemployment in South Africa: The Nature of the Beast," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 391-408, March.
    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. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    2. Alex Sienaert, 2007. "Migration, Remittances and Public Transfers: Evidence from South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 351, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Cecile Jackson, 2015. "Modernity and Matrifocality: The Feminization of Kinship?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(1), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Pia Rattenhuber & Maria Jouste, 2018. "A role for universal pension? : Simulating universal pensions in Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-23, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Gordon, Nia & Godfrey, Erin & Aber, J. Lawrence & Richter, Linda, 2017. "Exploring patterns of receipt of cash grants, health care, and education among 7–10year old children in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 177-188.
    6. Maria Jouste & Pia Rattenhuber, 2019. "A Role for Universal Pension? Simulating Universal Pensions in Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 12(1), pages 13-51.
    7. Pia Rattenhuber & Maria Jouste, 2018. "A role for universal pension? Simulating universal pensions in Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 023, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Schatz, Enid & Ogunmefun, Catherine, 2007. "Caring and Contributing: The Role of Older Women in Rural South African Multi-generational Households in the HIV/AIDS Era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1390-1403, August.
    9. Rosenberg, Molly & Beidelman, Erika & Chen, Xiwei & Canning, David & Kobayashi, Lindsay & Kahn, Kathleen & Pettifor, Audrey & Kabudula, Chodziwadziwa Whiteson, 2023. "The impact of a randomized cash transfer intervention on mortality of adult household members in rural South Africa, 2011–2022," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    10. Alexis Sienaert, 2008. "The Labour Supply Effects of the South African State Old Age Pension: Theory, Evidence and Implications," SALDRU Working Papers 20, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    11. Schatz, Enid & Gómez-Olivé, Xavier & Ralston, Margaret & Menken, Jane & Tollman, Stephen, 2012. "The impact of pensions on health and wellbeing in rural South Africa: Does gender matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1864-1873.
    12. Margaret Ralston & Enid Schatz & Jane Menken & Francesc Xavier Gómez-Olivé & Stephen Tollman, 2015. "Who Benefits—Or Does not—From South Africa’s Old Age Pension? Evidence from Characteristics of Rural Pensioners and Non-Pensioners," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Kehinde O. Omotoso & Steven F. Koch, 2017. "Gender Differentials in Health: A Differences-in-Decompositions Estimate," Working Papers 201717, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.

    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. Alessandro Tondini & Cally Ardington & Ingrid Woolard, 2017. "Public pensions and elderly informal employment: Evidence from a change in retirement age in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 206, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    2. Sten Dieden, 2003. "Integration into the South African Core Economy: Household Level Covariates," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 054, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Jessica Standish-White & Arden Finn, 2015. "Unconditional cash transfers and children's educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa ," SALDRU Working Papers 147, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    4. Coady, David P. & Grosh, Margaret & Hoddinott, John, 2002. "Targeting outcomes redux," FCND briefs 144, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Amar Hamoudi & Duncan Thomas, 2014. "Endogenous Co-residence and Program Incidence: South Africa's Old Age Pension," NBER Working Papers 19929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Xi Chen, 2017. "Old age pension and intergenerational living arrangements: a regression discontinuity design," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 455-476, June.
    8. Waidler, Jennifer, 2016. "On the fungibility of public and private transfers: A mental accounting approach," MERIT Working Papers 2016-060, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Özler, Berk, 2007. "Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-apartheid South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(3), pages 487-529, April.
    10. Javier Olivera & Jhonatan Clausen, 2014. "Las características del adulto mayor peruano y las políticas de protección social," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 37(73), pages 75-113.
    11. Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul & Bando, Rosangela, 2016. "Non-contributory pensions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 47-58.
    12. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    13. Agüero,Jorge M. & Fasola,Eniola, 2022. "Distributional Policies and Social Cohesion in a High-Unemployment Setting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10103, The World Bank.
    14. Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard, 2001. "The labour market and household income inequality in South Africa: existing evidence and new panel data," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 671-689.
    15. Bottan, Nicolas & Hoffmann, Bridget & Vera-Cossio, Diego A., 2021. "Stepping up during a crisis: The unintended effects of a noncontributory pension program during the Covid-19 pandemic," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    16. Panayiota Lyssiotou, 2017. "The impact of targeting policy on spouses’ demand for public goods, labor supplies and sharing rule," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 853-878, September.
    17. Chen, Xi, 2015. "Old-Age Pension and Intergenerational Living Arrangements," IZA Discussion Papers 9482, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Sangeetha Madhavan & Tyler W. Myroniuk & Randall Kuhn & Mark Collinson, 2017. "Household structure vs. composition: Understanding gendered effects on educational progress in rural South Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(59), pages 1891-1916.
    19. Olivier Donni & Eliane El Badaoui, 2024. "Labor Supply In The Extended Household: Economies Of Scale, Self‐Selection, And The Intrahousehold Distribution Of Resources In South Africa," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 191-215, February.
    20. Hamoudi, Amar & Thomas, Duncan, 2014. "Endogenous coresidence and program incidence: South Africa's Old Age Pension," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 30-37.

    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:taf:femeco:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:103-115. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    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.