The Economy-Wide Impacts of the South African Child Support Grant: A Micro-Simulation-Computable General Equilibrium Analysis
PEP Working Paper serie 13-03
37 Pages Posted: 22 Mar 2013 Last revised: 16 Jul 2018
Date Written: March 20, 2013
Abstract
We examine the economy-wide impact of the child support grant (CSG) on the South African economy using a bottom-up/top-down approach. This allows us to estimate the potential effects on households’ welfare and on the economy following a change in the CSG. Three simulations are presented, in simulation 1 the value of the CSG is increased by 20%; in simulation 2 the number of beneficiaries among the eligible children is increased by two million and simulation 3 combines these two. A positive link between the CSG and the probability of participating in the labour market is found. The positive impacts on the labour market, together with the increase in the transfers received by households, results in an increase in their income. Poverty decreases in comparison with the base year for the whole population and for children. Finally, we can conclude that simulation 1 is the most cost effective of the policies.
Keywords: Child support grant, computable general equilibrium, micro-simulation, poverty, South Africa
JEL Classification: D58, E24, E6, H53, I3, J01, O55
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Large Cash Transfers to the Elderly in South Africa
By Anne Case and Angus Deaton
-
Public Policy and Extended Families: Evidence from South Africa
By Marianne Bertrand, Douglas L. Miller, ...
-
Public Policy and Extended Families: Evidence from South Africa
By Marianne Bertrand, Sendhil Mullainathan, ...
-
Incomes in South Africa Since the Fall of Apartheid
By Murray Leibbrandt, James A. Levinsohn, ...
-
Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa
-
Rearranging the Family? Income Support and Elderly Living Arrangements in a Low Income Country
By Eric V. Edmonds, Kristin Mammen, ...
-
Surviving Unemployment Without State Support: Unemployment and Household Formation in South Africa
By Stephan Klasen and Ingrid Woolard
-
Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa
By Cally Ardington, Anne Case, ...
-
Wage Effects of Unions and Industrial Councils in South Africa
-
Determinants of Income Mobility and Household Poverty Dynamics in South Africa
By Ingrid Woolard and Stephan Klasen