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Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa

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  • Mitra, Sophie

Abstract

Summary South Africa's Disability Grant (DG) program has been criticized for its poor administration and the dependency culture it promotes. This paper assesses the program's targeting effectiveness and its effects on labor supply. Using disability self-reports and standard measures of economic well being, the results suggest that DG's inclusion errors are relatively limited but exclusion errors are substantial and serious. The paper also shows that increased leniency in disability screening policy in the Gauteng province in the early 2000s does not appear to have altered labor market behaviors relative to Northern Cape, a province where there was no change in policy.

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  • Mitra, Sophie, 2010. "Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1692-1709, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:12:p:1692-1709
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    Cited by:

    1. Sabina Alkire, 2011. "Multidimensional Poverty and its Discontents," OPHI Working Papers 46, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. Akerkar, Supriya & Joshi, P.C. & Fordham, Maureen, 2016. "Cultures of Entitlement and Social Protection: Evidence from Flood Prone Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 46-58.
    3. Deon Filmer & Louise Fox, 2014. "Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa [L’emploi des jeunes en Afrique subsaharienne - Rapport complet]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16608, December.
    4. George Mutasa, 2012. "Demographic, Community and Macroeconomic Effects on Disability Grant Programme Participation," Working Papers 12155, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    5. Palmer, Michael G. & Nguyen, Thi Minh Thuy, 2012. "Mainstreaming health insurance for people with disabilities," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 600-613.
    6. Leibbrandt, Murray & Lilenstein, Kezia & Shenker, Callie & Woolard, Ingrid, 2013. "The influence of social transfers on labour supply: A South African and international review," SALDRU Working Papers 112, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    7. Stephen Devereux & Edoardo Masset & Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & Michael Samson & Althea-Maria Rivas & Dolf te Lintelo, 2017. "The targeting effectiveness of social transfers," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 162-211, April.
    8. Gaiha, Raghav & Mathur, Shantanu & Kulkarni, Vani S., 2022. "Rural poverty and disability in Ethiopia: Formidable policy challenges," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1000-1015.
    9. Kelly, Gabrielle, 2017. "Patient agency and contested notions of disability in social assistance applications in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 109-116.

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