IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/sajeco/v91y2023i3p375-393.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government social protection programme spending and household welfare in Lesotho

Author

Listed:
  • Joachim Boko
  • Dhushyanth Raju
  • Stephen D. Younger

Abstract

Lesotho has notably high levels of poverty and inequality despite a high level of government spending on social protection programmes. We assess the performance of this spending in reducing consumption poverty and inequality, applying benefit incidence and microsimulation methods to 2017/2018 household survey data. We investigate the distributional effects of actual spending as well as those of a hypothetical alternative in which the spending is targeted through a proxy means test (PMT) formula used by the government for some programmes. We find that government spending on social protection programmes in Lesotho substantially reduces poverty and inequality. For most programmes, the hypothetical alternative of targeting spending to poorer households through the government's PMT formula would have no better distributional effects than current programme spending. The exception is postsecondary education bursaries, which are costly and regressive. Retaining bursaries only for poorer students, and reallocating the outlay this saves to a transfer targeted to poorer households through the government's PMT formula, could reduce poverty and inequality significantly.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim Boko & Dhushyanth Raju & Stephen D. Younger, 2023. "Government social protection programme spending and household welfare in Lesotho," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 91(3), pages 375-393, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:91:y:2023:i:3:p:375-393
    DOI: 10.1111/saje.12341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12341
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/saje.12341?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Caitlin & Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique, 2018. "A poor means test? Econometric targeting in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 109-124.
    2. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    3. World Bank, 2013. "Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty," World Bank Publications - Reports 16650, The World Bank Group.
    4. Francois Bourguignon & Luiz A. Pereira da Silva, 2003. "The Impact of Economic Policies on Poverty and Income Distribution : Evaluation Techniques and Tools," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15090, April.
    5. Ridder, Geert & Moffitt, Robert, 2007. "The Econometrics of Data Combination," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 75, Elsevier.
    6. Iacus, Stefano & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2009. "cem: Software for Coarsened Exact Matching," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 30(i09).
    7. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sergio Afcha & Jose García-Quevedo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 955-975.
    2. Jing Wang & Gen Li & Kai-Lung Hui, 2022. "Monetary Incentives and Knowledge Spillover: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3549-3572, May.
    3. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Philipp vom Berge & Achim Schmillen, 2023. "Effects of mass layoffs on local employment—evidence from geo-referenced data," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 509-539.
    5. Matteo Aquilina & Giulio Cornelli & Marina Sanchez del Villar, 2024. "Regulation, information asymmetries and the funding of new ventures," BIS Working Papers 1162, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & William L. Skimmyhorn, 2022. "Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 403-447, February.
    7. Davidson Heath & Giorgo Sertsios, 2022. "Profitability and Financial Leverage: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8386-8410, November.
    8. Yidi Liu & Xin Li & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, 2024. "Consequences of China’s 2018 Online Lending Regulation and the Promise of PolicyTech," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 1235-1256, September.
    9. Rathi, Sawan & Majumdar, Adrija & Chatterjee, Chirantan, 2024. "Did the COVID-19 pandemic propel usage of AI in pharmaceutical innovation? New evidence from patenting data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Nilsen, Øivind A. & Raknerud, Arvid, 2024. "Dynamics of first-time patenting firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(8).
    11. Ravi Bapna & Alok Gupta & Gautam Ray & Shweta Singh, 2023. "Single-Sourcing vs. Multisourcing: An Empirical Analysis of Large Information Technology Outsourcing Arrangements," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 1109-1130, September.
    12. Karadja, Mounir & Sundberg, Anton, 2023. "The labor market impact of a taxi driver’s license," Working Paper Series 2023:6, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    13. Weber, Olaf & Ahmad, Adnan, 2014. "Empowerment Through Microfinance: The Relation Between Loan Cycle and Level of Empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 75-87.
    14. Hills, Robert & Kubic, Matthew & Mayew, William J., 2021. "State sponsors of terrorism disclosure and SEC financial reporting oversight," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    15. Mulyaningsih, Tri & Dong, Sarah & Miranti, Riyana & Daly, Anne & Purwaningsih, Yunastiti, 2022. "Targeted scholarship for higher education and academic performance: Evidence from Indonesia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Nie, Peng & Li, Qiaoge, 2022. "Energy Poverty and Health Care Expenditures: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," IZA Discussion Papers 15479, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Guignet, Dennis B. & Martinez-Cruz, Adan L., 2018. "The impacts of underground petroleum releases on a homeowner's decision to sell: A difference-in-differences approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 11-24.
    18. Amezcua, Alejandro & Ratinho, Tiago & Plummer, Lawrence A. & Jayamohan, Parvathi, 2020. "Organizational sponsorship and the economics of place: How regional urbanization and localization shape incubator outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4).
    19. Gutiérrez-Romero, Roxana, 2024. "The intergenerational impact of electoral violence on height and human capital," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 608-630.
    20. Yiwei Qian & Rodolfo M. Nayga & Michael R. Thomsen & Heather L. Rouse, 2016. "The Effect of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program on Childhood Obesity," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 260-275.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:sajeco:v:91:y:2023:i:3:p:375-393. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essaaea.html .

    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.