IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v36y2020ics1570677x18303575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long run educational and spillover effects of unconditional cash transfers: Evidence from South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Mostert, Cyprian Mcwayizeni
  • Vall Castello, Judit

Abstract

Cash transfer (CT) policy is promoted as an important financial vehicle to address household poverty and bring positive societal development. This study investigates the impact of an unconditional CT policy on children’s education outcomes focusing on both the primary and secondary phases of education. We also examine the spillover effect of CT policy on parents’ employment. To identify these effects we focus on South Africa and exploit the changes in age eligibility requirements of the CT policy to build credible control and treatment groups based on birth cohort. Our results show that CT policy improves reading and writing abilities at both the primary (by 3.7% and 3.3% respectively) and secondary education levels (by 10.2% and 10.1%, respectively) but it fosters school attendance only in secondary education. We also provide evidence that, for primary education students, the effects are only significant for boys. Notably, the positive effects of CT programs are also confirmed by the presence of spillover effects to other members of the family in our observance of increases in both mothers’ and fathers’ employment outcomes (by 35% and 34%, respectively). Therefore, in this paper we provide robust evidence that unconditional CT policy supports resilient development of the country’s population in several dimensions that go beyond the educational achievement of targeted children.

Suggested Citation

  • Mostert, Cyprian Mcwayizeni & Vall Castello, Judit, 2020. "Long run educational and spillover effects of unconditional cash transfers: Evidence from South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:36:y:2020:i:c:s1570677x18303575
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100817
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X18303575
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100817?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. Baez, Javier E. & Camacho, Adriana, 2011. "Assessing the Long-term Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Human Capital: Evidence from Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 5751, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Duc, Le Thuc & Behrman, Jere R., 2017. "Heterogeneity in predictive power of early childhood nutritional indicators for mid-childhood outcomes: Evidence from Vietnam," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 86-95.
    3. Orazio Attanasio & Emla Fitzsimons & Ana Gomez & Martha Isabel Gutiérrez & Costas Meghir & Alice Mesnard, 2010. "Children's Schooling and Work in the Presence of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Rural Colombia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(2), pages 181-210, January.
    4. Christopher Blattman & Eric P. Green & Julian Jamison & M. Christian Lehmann & Jeannie Annan, 2016. "The Returns to Microenterprise Support among the Ultrapoor: A Field Experiment in Postwar Uganda," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 35-64, April.
    5. Douglas Almond & Janet Currie, 2011. "Killing Me Softly: The Fetal Origins Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 153-172, Summer.
    6. Sudhanshu Handa & Silvio Daidone & Amber Peterman & Benjamin Davis & Audrey Pereira & Tia Palermo & Jennifer Yablonski, 2018. "Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 33(2), pages 259-298.
    7. Rawlings, Laura B.*Rubio, Gloria M., 2003. "Evaluating the impact of conditional cash transfer programs : lessons from Latin America," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3119, The World Bank.
    8. Jefferson, Philip N. (ed.), 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195393781.
    9. Akresh, Richard & de Walque, Damien & Kazianga, Harounan, 2013. "Cash transfers and child schooling : evidence from a randomized evaluation of the role of conditionality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6340, The World Bank.
    10. Schady, Norbert & Araujo, Maria Caridad, 2006. "Cash transfers, conditions, school enrollment, and child work : evidence from a randomized experiment in Ecuador," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3930, The World Bank.
    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. de Milliano, Marlous & Barrington, Clare & Angeles, Gustavo & Gbedemah, Christiana, 2021. "Crowding-out or crowding-in? Effects of LEAP 1000 unconditional cash transfer program on household and community support among women in rural Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    2. Dong, Shizheng & Zhang, Zili & Han, Yiduo & Si, Yanwu, 2023. "Do pension subsidies reduce household education expenditure inequality? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 532-540.
    3. Nicky Pouw & Katja Bender, 2022. "The Poverty Reduction Effect of Social Protection: The Pros and Cons of a Multidisciplinary Approach," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2204-2223, October.
    4. Chong, Zhi Zheng & Lau, Siew Yee, 2023. "A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Educational Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers," MPRA Paper 113587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Mostert, Cyprian M., 2021. "The impact of the school feeding programme on the education and health outcomes of South African children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Cirera, Laia & Castelló, Judit Vall & Brew, Joe & Saúte, Francisco & Sicuri, Elisa, 2022. "The impact of a malaria elimination initiative on school outcomes: Evidence from Southern Mozambique," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    7. Fabianna Bacil & Wesley Silva, 2020. "Social protection coverage—Sudan case study," Research Report 52, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    8. Xiaodong Zheng & Shuangyue Shangguan & Zheng Shen & Hualei Yang, 2023. "Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 502-521, June.

    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. Zhou, Lei & Jiang, Bo & Wang, Jingxi, 2020. "Do cash transfers have impacts on student Academic, cognitive, and enrollment outcomes? Evidence from rural China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Jules Gazeaud & Claire Ricard, 2021. "Conditional cash transfers and the learning crisis: evidence from Tayssir scale-up in Morocco," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2102, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    3. Luis Henrique Paiva & Fábio Veras Soares & Flavio Cireno & Iara Azevedo Vitelli Viana & Ana Clara Duran, 2016. "The effects of conditionality monitoring on educational outcomes: evidence from Brazil’s Bolsa Família programme," Working Papers 144, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    4. Malerba, Daniele, 2020. "Poverty alleviation and local environmental degradation: An empirical analysis in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Jacobus de Hoop & Furio C. Rosati, 2014. "Cash Transfers and Child Labor," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 202-234.
    6. Carla Canelas & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "Schooling and Labor Market Impacts of Bolivia's Bono Juancito Pinto Program," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 155-179, December.
    7. Camilo, Karen & Zuluaga, Blanca, 2022. "The effects of conditional cash transfers on schooling and child labor of nonbeneficiary siblings," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Ahrens, Achim & Hangartner, Dominik & Casalis, Marine & Sánchez, Rodrigo, 2023. "Cash-Based Interventions Improve Multidimensional Integration Outcomes of Venezuelan Immigrants," SocArXiv 5sh8a, Center for Open Science.
    9. Edmonds, Eric V. & Shrestha, Maheshwor, 2014. "You get what you pay for: Schooling incentives and child labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 196-211.
    10. Kaushalendra Kumar & Santosh Kumar & Ashish Singh & Faujdar Ram & Abhishek Singh, 2019. "Heterogeneity in the effect of mid-childhood height and weight gain on human capital at age 14-15 years: Evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-14, February.
    11. Attanasio, Orazio & Polania-Reyes, Sandra & Pellerano, Luca, 2015. "Building social capital: Conditional cash transfers and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 22-39.
    12. Guido Neidhöfer & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "The Long(er)‐Term Impacts of Chile Solidario on Human Capital and Labor Income," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 209-244, December.
    13. Guido Neidhöfer & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "The Long(er)‐Term Impacts of Chile Solidario on Human Capital and Labor Income," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 209-244, December.
    14. Dong, Shizheng & Zhang, Zili & Han, Yiduo & Si, Yanwu, 2023. "Do pension subsidies reduce household education expenditure inequality? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 532-540.
    15. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Iqbal, Nasir & Nawaz, Saima & Yew, Siew Ling, 2021. "Unconditional cash transfers, child labour and education: theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 437-457.
    16. Richard de Groot & Sudhanshu Handa & Mike Park & Robert D. Osei & Isaac Osei-Akoto & Luigi Peter Ragno & Garima Bhalla, 2015. "Heterogeneous impacts of an unconditioal cash transfer programme on schooling: evidence from the Ghana LEAP programme," Papers inwopa793, Innocenti Working Papers.
    17. Jessica E. Taaffe & Andrew F. Longosz & David Wilson, 2017. "Themed Issue: Cash Transfers and Microfinance," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(5), pages 601-619, September.
    18. Carla Canelas & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2018. "Schooling and labour market impacts of Bolivia's Bono Juancito Pinto," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-36, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Carla Canelas & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2018. "Schooling and labour market impacts of Bolivia’s Bono Juancito Pinto," WIDER Working Paper Series 036, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. André, Pierre & Delesalle, Esther & Dumas, Christelle, 2021. "Returns to farm child labor in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    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:eee:ehbiol:v:36:y:2020:i:c:s1570677x18303575. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    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.