Unconditional cash transfers and children’s educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa

dc.creatorStandish-White, Jessica
dc.creatorFinn, Arden
dc.date2015-05-28T13:58:47Z
dc.date2015-05-28T13:58:47Z
dc.dateStandish-White, J., Finn, A., (2015). Unconditional cash transfers and children’s educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa. A Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit Working Paper Number 147. Cape Town: SALDRU, University of Cape Town
dc.date2015-05
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-06T10:55:48Z
dc.date.available2017-06-06T10:55:48Z
dc.date.issued2017-06-06
dc.descriptionWe use longitudinal data from three waves of South Africa's National Income Dynamics Study to estimate the effect of pension receipt in the household on children's educational outcomes in South Africa. We find that children who co-reside with a pensioner achieve better educational outcomes than those who do not, while controlling for a wide number of individual and household characteristics. In particular, we find that the sex of the pension recipient matters - the positive impact on a child’s progression through school is greater if a female, rather than a male, receives the pension.We explore some of the possible mechanisms behind this, including differential school absenteeism rates and differential spending on non-fee schooling expenses.
dc.descriptionThe authors would like to thank Nicola Branson, Murray Leibbrandt, Brendan Maughan-Brown, Vimal Ranchhod, and Ingrid Woolard. This paper benefi ted greatly from comments by participants at the SALDRU researchers reading group. All errors and omissions remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
dc.descriptionJessica Standish-White acknowledges funding from the National Income Dynamics Study Bursary and the Sheila van der Horst Bursary. Arden Finn acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation’s Human and Social Dynamics in Development Grand Challenge.
dc.identifier978-1-928281-08-5
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/780
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper DA - 2017-06-06 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Social grants KW - education KW - South Africa LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2017 T1 - Unconditional cash transfers and children’s educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa TI - Unconditional cash transfers and children’s educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11090/780 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/780
dc.languageen
dc.publisher.departmentSALDRUen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Commerceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.relationSaldru Working Paper;147
dc.subjectSocial grants
dc.subjecteducation
dc.subjectSouth Africa
dc.titleUnconditional cash transfers and children’s educational outcomes: Evidence from the old-age pension programme in South Africa
dc.typeWorking Paper
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceWorking Paperen_ZA
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