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Do Cash Transfers Promote Food Security? The Case of the South African Child Support Grant

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  • d'Agostino, Giorgio
  • Scarlato, Margherita
  • Napolitano, Silvia

Abstract

This paper evaluates the causal effect of the Child Support Grant (CSG) implemented in South Africa on household food consumption and dietary diversity. The analysis uses the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) covering 2008, 2010-2011 and 2012, and carries out a regression discontinuity design exploiting the increase in the age limit criteria for eligibility for the program. Our results show that the CSG have proved to be effective in increasing total food expenditure per adult equivalent but has not significantly changed the dietary habits of the beneficiary households, nor has the program resulted in any stronger effect for the most vulnerable subgroups of the beneficiary population. To analyse the external and internal validities of the results, a comparison between non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric estimates is presented.

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  • d'Agostino, Giorgio & Scarlato, Margherita & Napolitano, Silvia, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Promote Food Security? The Case of the South African Child Support Grant," MPRA Paper 69177, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:69177
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    Cited by:

    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. von Fintel, Dieter & Pienaar, Louw, 2016. "Small-Scale Farming and Food Security: The Enabling Role of Cash Transfers in South Africa's Former Homelands," IZA Discussion Papers 10377, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Muhammad Tariq & Aneesa & Farah Khan, 2019. "The Effects of Social Protection Program on Food Consumption and Poverty in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 11(1), pages 55-82, March.
    4. Leight, Jessica & Hirvonen, Kalle & Zafar, Sarim, 2024. "The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis," OSF Preprints dnc2r, Center for Open Science.
    5. Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio d'Agostino, 2019. "Cash Transfers, Labor Supply, and Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Africa," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 159-184, October.
    6. Samuel Kobina Annim & Raymond Boadi Frempong, 2018. "Effects of access to credit and income on dietary diversity in Ghana," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1649-1663, December.
    7. Kabeya Clement Mulamba, 2022. "Relationship between households’ share of food expenditure and income across South African districts: a multilevel regression analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. 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).
    9. d'Agostino, Giorgio & Scarlato, Margherita, 2016. "Gender Inequality in the South African Labour Market: the Impact of the Child Support Grant," MPRA Paper 72523, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food security; Cash transfers; Regression discontinuity design; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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