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What Difference Does A Year Make? The Cumulative Effect of Missing Cash Transfers on Schooling Attainment

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine Eyal

    (School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

  • Lindokuhle Njozela

    (School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

Abstract

South Africa's largest poverty alleviation tool, the child support grant, has benefited more than 12 million children, with many positive outcomes. However the implementation was not perfect - the means test threshold was left unadjusted for ten years, requiring a more than one hundred percent adjustment when the government finally saw fit to change the threshold in 2008. In the interim, very many children missed out on the benefits of the grant. Using exogenous changes to the age and income threshold values, this paper estimates the cumulative impact of missing grant receipt. We find that a South African child born in 1994 missed out on a year's worth of schooling compared to those born just one year later. The costs were not limited only to schooling attainment; increasing the means test threshold and rates of receipt appears to have improved maternal mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine Eyal & Lindokuhle Njozela, 2016. "What Difference Does A Year Make? The Cumulative Effect of Missing Cash Transfers on Schooling Attainment," SALDRU Working Papers 186, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:wpaper:186
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    1. Garman, E.c. & Eyal, K. & Avendano, M. & Evans-lacko, S. & Lund, C., 2022. "Cash transfers and the mental health of young people: evidence from South Africa's child support grant," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112922, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Garman, E.C. & Eyal, K. & Avendano, M. & Evans-Lacko, S. & Lund, C., 2022. "Cash transfers and the mental health of young people: Evidence from South Africa's child support grant," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Chloé van Biljon & Dieter von Fintel & Atika Pasha, 2018. "Bargaining to work: the effect of female autonomy on female labour supply," Working Papers 04/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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    Keywords

    cash transfers; cumulative effect; human capital; maternal mental health;
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