Three essays on the impact of cash transfers on food security and labor supply: the case of South Africa.

Abstract

This study analyses the theoretical pathways that link cash transfers to food security and labor supply and the assumptions that underlie their e ectiveness. It also provides an impact evaluation of the e ectiveness of one of the major unconditional cash transfer programmes implemented in South Africa - the Child Support Grant (CSG) - in sustaining food access and dietary diversi cation in the bene ciary households and in a ecting gender inequality from the perspective of the labor market status. We carry out a regression discontinuity design which exploits the variation induced by the expansion in the grant eligibility related to the child age on data from the National Income Dynamics Study covering years 2008, 2010-2011 and 2012. Our evaluation shows that the CSG is e ective in sustaining food expenditure in bene ciary households, especially the African headed households, the urban households and the poorest in monetary terms. Nonetheless, we also nd that the CSG is not e ective in allowing signi cant changes in the dietary habits of the more disadvantaged sub-populations. Our assessment on the employment opportunities and employment type experienced over time by adults in the bene ciary households shows that the CSG supports women, but not men, in participating in the labor market and in increasing their employment opportunities. Nevertheless, women mainly enter the labor market as self-employed or casual employed, rather than on a regular wage basis. This means that the CSG only partially promotes gender equality in the labor market.