IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ssefpa/v11y2019i3d10.1007_s12571-019-00918-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social grants, remittances, and food security: does the source of income matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer Waidler

    (Maastricht University
    UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti)

  • Stephen Devereux

    (University of Western Cape
    University of Sussex)

Abstract

Large numbers of South Africans receive social grants (public transfers) or remittances (private transfers), and yet one in four South Africans is food insecure. The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: do social grants and remittances improve food security and nutritional outcomes? If so, do these impacts differ between public and private transfers? Drawing on the National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS), South Africa’s first nationally representative survey that follows more than 28,000 individuals over time, we found significant and positive impacts of the Older Person’s Grant and of remittances on the dietary diversity index, but not of the Child Support Grant. Moreover, we found no effect on food expenditure or on anthropometry (BMI) by the Older Person’s Grant, or remittances. However, some positive effects were found on children’s BMI from the Child Support Grant. We discuss why we observe different effects from different transfers, as well as giving several reasons why income transfers are failing to close the nutritional deficits in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Waidler & Stephen Devereux, 2019. "Social grants, remittances, and food security: does the source of income matter?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 679-702, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:11:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-019-00918-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s12571-019-00918-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-019-00918-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12571-019-00918-x?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. Joanna Ryan & Murray Leibbrandt, 2015. "Multidimensional Food Insecurity Measurement," SALDRU Working Papers 160, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    2. Ingrid Woolard & Stephan Klasen, 2005. "Determinants of Income Mobility and Household Poverty Dynamics in South Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 865-897.
    3. Anne Case, 2004. "Does Money Protect Health Status? Evidence from South African Pensions," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 287-312, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jorge M. Aguero & Michael R. Carter & Ingrid Woolard, 2006. "The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant," SALDRU Working Papers 8, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    5. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    6. Taylor, J. Edward & Mora, Jorge & Adams, Richard H., Jr. & Lopez-Feldman, Alejandro, 2005. "Remittances, Inequality and Poverty: Evidence from Rural Mexico," Working Papers 60287, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    7. Aliber, Michael, 2009. "Exploring Statistics South Africa’s national household surveys as sources of information about household-level food security," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 48(4), pages 1-26, December.
    8. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_money_protect_nber is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gillespie, Stuart & Hodge, Judith & Yosef, Sivan & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul, 2016. "Nourishing millions: Stories of change in nutrition: Synopsis," IFPRI synopses 978-0-89629-990-0, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. repec:pri:cheawb:case_money_protect_nber.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Dorrit R. Posel, 2001. "Intra‐Family Transfers And Income‐Pooling," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 69(3), pages 501-528, September.
    12. Barrientos,Armando, 2013. "Social Assistance in Developing Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107039025.
    13. Adams Jr., Richard H. & Cuecuecha, Alfredo, 2010. "Remittances, Household Expenditure and Investment in Guatemala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1626-1641, November.
    14. Marisa Coetzee, 2013. "Finding the Benefits: Estimating the Impact of The South African Child Support Grant," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(3), pages 427-450, September.
    15. Peter Lloyd-Sherlock & João Saboia & Baruch Ramírez-Rodríguez, 2012. "Cash Transfers and the Well-being of Older People in Brazil," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(5), pages 1049-1072, September.
    16. Gillespie, Stuart & Hodge, Judith & Yosef, Sivan & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul (ed.), 2016. "Nourishing millions: Stories of change in nutrition," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 978-0-89629-588-9.
    17. Maxwell, Daniel & Ahiadeke, Clement & Levin, Carol & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Zakariah, Sawudatu & Lamptey, Grace Mary, 1999. "Alternative food-security indicators: revisiting the frequency and severity of 'coping strategies'," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 411-429, August.
    18. World Bank, 2012. "Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity [Capacidad de recuperación, equidad y oportunidades]," World Bank Publications - Reports 12648, The World Bank Group.
    19. Keetie Roelen & Stephen Devereux & Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai & Bruno Martorano & Tia Palermo & Luigi Peter Ragno & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2017. "How to Make ‘Cash Plus’ Work: Linking Cash Transfers to Services and Sectors," Papers inwopa915, Innocenti Working Papers.
    20. Maitra, Pushkar & Ray, Ranjan, 2003. "The effect of transfers on household expenditure patterns and poverty in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 23-49, June.
    21. Andries du Toit & David Neves, 2009. "Trading on a Grant: Integrating Formal and Informal Social Protection in Post-Apartheid Migrant Networks," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 7509, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    22. Hoddinott, John & Yohannes, Yisehac, 2002. "Dietary diversity as a food security indicator," FCND discussion papers 136, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    23. Seth R. Gitter & James Manley & Vanya Slavchevska, 2010. "How Effective are Cash Transfer Programs at Improving Nutritional Status?," Working Papers 2010-18, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2012.
    24. Gillespie, Stuart, ed. & Hodge, Judith, ed. & Yosef, Sivan, ed. & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul, ed., 2016. "Nourishing millions: Stories of change in nutrition: Synopsis [in Chinese]," IFPRI synopses 9780896299931, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    25. Sheryl Hendriks, 2014. "Food security in South Africa: Status quo and policy imperatives," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 1-24, June.
    26. 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).
    27. Waidler, J. & Hagen-Zanker, J. & Gassmann, F. & Siegel, M., 2014. "Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on expenditure patterns of recipient households?: The Moldovan case," MERIT Working Papers 2014-072, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    28. Armando Barrientos, 2013. "Social Assistance in Developing Countries," One Pager 222, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    29. Silvio Daidone & Luca Pellerano & Sudhanshu Handa & Benjamin Davis, 2015. "Is Graduation from Social Safety Nets Possible? Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(2), pages 93-102, March.
    30. 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.
    31. 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.
    32. repec:pri:cheawb:case_money_protect_nber is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Michael Lokshin & Mikhail Bontch‐Osmolovski & Elena Glinskaya, 2010. "Work‐Related Migration and Poverty Reduction in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 323-332, May.
    34. Brunori, Paolo & O'Reilly, Marie, 2010. "Social protection for development: a review of definitions," MPRA Paper 29495, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    35. Jason Davis & Noli Brazil, 2016. "Migration, Remittances and Nutrition Outcomes of Left-Behind Children: A National-Level Quantitative Assessment of Guatemala," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, 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. Xikombiso Gertrude Mbhenyane & Ayuk Betrand Tambe, 2024. "The Influence of Household and Community Food Environments on Food Insecurity in Limpopo Province, South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-23, January.
    2. 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.
    3. Simphiwe Innocentia Hlatshwayo & Temitope Oluwaseun Ojo & Albert Thembinkosi Modi & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi & Rob Slotow & Mjabuliseni Simon Cloapas Ngidi, 2022. "The Determinants of Market Participation and Its Effect on Food Security of the Rural Smallholder Farmers in Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces, South Africa," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Faith Samkange & Haywantee Ramkissoon & Juliet Chipumuro & Henry Wanyama & Gaurav Chawla, 2021. "Innovative and Sustainable Food Production and Food Consumption Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Recipe for Delivering Development Success in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Stephen Devereux & Jose Cuesta, 2021. "Urban-Sensitive Social Protection: How Universalized Social Protection Can Reduce Urban Vulnerabilities Post COVID-19," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(4), pages 340-360, October.
    6. Hanna Dudek & Joanna Myszkowska-Ryciak, 2020. "The Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates of Food Insecurity in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Adhikari, Tamanna & Greyling, Talita & Rossouw, Stephanie, 2021. "The ugly truth about social welfare payments and households' subjective well-being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 883, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Gabrielle Wills & Servaas van der Berg & Leila Patel & Bokang Mpeta, 2020. "Household resource flows and food poverty during South Africa’s lockdown: Short-term policy implications for three channels of social protection," Working Papers 22/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    9. Thobani Cele & Maxwell Mudhara, 2022. "Impact of Market Participation on Household Food Security among Smallholder Irrigators in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-13, February.

    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. 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).
    2. Giorgio d’Agostino & Margherita Scarlato & Silvia Napolitano, 2018. "Do Cash Transfers Promote Food Security? The Case of the South African Child Support Grant," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(4), pages 430-456.
    3. Marisa Coetzee, 2013. "Finding the Benefits: Estimating the Impact of The South African Child Support Grant," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(3), pages 427-450, September.
    4. Nicola Brandt, 2012. "Reducing Poverty in Chile: Cash Transfers and Better Jobs," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 951, OECD Publishing.
    5. 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.
    6. Adriana Cardozo & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D. & Calvin Zebaze Djiofack, 2019. "Migration and Remittances in Haiti: Their Welfare Impact on Poor and Non-Poor Households," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 244, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Stuart Gillespie & Jody Harris & Nicholas Nisbett & Mara van den Bold, 2021. "Stories of change in nutrition from Africa and Asia: an introduction to a special series in Food Security," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 799-802, August.
    8. Richmond Aryeetey & Afua Atuobi-Yeboah & Lucy Billings & Nicholas Nisbett & Mara den Bold & Mariama Toure, 2022. "Stories of Change in Nutrition in Ghana: a focus on stunting and anemia among children under-five years (2009 – 2018)," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(2), pages 355-379, April.
    9. Donato Romano & Silvio Traverso, 2020. "Disentangling the Impact of International Migration on Food and Nutrition Security of Left-Behind Households: Evidence from Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 783-811, September.
    10. Jody Harris & Phuong Huynh & Hoa T. Nguyen & Nga Hoang & Lan Tran Mai & Le Danh Tuyen & Phuong Hong Nguyen, 2021. "Nobody left behind? Equity and the drivers of stunting reduction in Vietnamese ethnic minority populations," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 803-818, August.
    11. Juan M. Villa, 2014. "The length of exposure to antipoverty transfer programmes: what is the relevance for children's human capital formation?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 20614, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    13. 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).
    14. Barrientos, Armando & Byrne, Jasmina & Peña, Paola & Villa, Juan Miguel, 2014. "Social transfers and child protection in the South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P2), pages 105-112.
    15. Hajdu, Flora & Granlund, Stefan & Neves, David & Hochfeld, Tessa & Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin & Sandström, Emil, 2020. "Cash transfers for sustainable rural livelihoods? Examining the long-term productive effects of the Child Support Grant in South Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    16. Chen, Xi, 2015. "Old-Age Pension and Intergenerational Living Arrangements," IZA Discussion Papers 9482, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Chen, Xi & Eggleston, Karen & Sun, Ang, 2018. "The impact of social pensions on intergenerational relationships: Comparative evidence from China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 225-235.
    18. Bassier, Ihsaan & Budlender, Joshua & Zizzamia, Rocco & Leibbrandt, Murray & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2021. "Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    19. Marina Dodlova & Anna Gioblas, 2017. "Regime type, inequality, and redistributive transfers in developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Alex Sienaert, 2007. "Migration, Remittances and Public Transfers: Evidence from South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 351, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

    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:spr:ssefpa:v:11:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-019-00918-x. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.