Gender Inequality in the South African Labour Market: the Impact of the Child Support Grant

d'Agostino, Giorgio and Scarlato, Margherita (2016): Gender Inequality in the South African Labour Market: the Impact of the Child Support Grant.

Abstract

The Child Support Grant (CSG) represents one of the major cash transfer implemented in South Africa to address children's vulnerability and household poverty. This paper provides an evaluation of the impact of the CSG on gender inequality by evaluating the effect of the programme on the employment status of adult members of beneficiary households. We use data from the 2008, 2010-2011 and 2012 National Income Dynamics Study and apply a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that exploits the expansion in eligibility due to a discontinous change in the age eligibility criterion. The analysis considers two source of heterogeneity in the impact of the CSG on labour market, i.e. gender and household members receiving the Old Age Pension social grant. In addition, the evaluation identifies differing effects by number of treated children in beneficiary households. Overall, this evaluation shows that the CSG had a negative effect on the probability of being employed of the beneficiary household members and increased gender inequality by strongly discouraging women's employment.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Cash transfers, Regression discontinuity design, sub-Saharan Africa
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I38 - Government Policy ; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O55 - Africa

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