Cash transfers to the elderly and its spillover effects: Evidences from a non-contributory program in Brazil
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present evidences on the spillover effects of a cash transfer addressed to poor elders in Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Brazilian National Households Survey (PNAD) the authors assess the effects of an income transfer to the elders on household composition and the labor supply of elders and co-residing relatives, under a regression discontinuity design.
Findings
The authors do not find strong evidences of changes in the household composition due to the program. However the authors found reductions in the elders’ labor force participation, indicating that the program allow elders to retire. Moreover, the transfer yields a decrease in the labor force participation of co-residents, depending on their age. The authors also observe decreases in child labor.
Originality/value
Along with the cash comes context-dependent effects, showing there are many latent aspects of these transfers yet to be uncovered.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Rodolfo Hoffmann, Luís Eduardo Afonso, Alexandre Nicolella, Alexandre Nunes de Almeida, Elaine Pazello, Habiba Djebbari, Maria Laura Alzua, Fabio Soares, Alexandra Peralta, Rafael Ribas, Christopher Ryan, Rafael Camelo, Marcelo Sartarelli, and several seminar participants for all their comments. The authors also thank Elliott Fan for the attention and contributions at earlier stages of this work. Special thanks go to Martin Valdivia, to whom we are indebted for his several important contributions. The authors thank for the CNPq and the PEP-NET funding, and two anonymous referees for their comments on the working paper version. The authors also thank an anonymous referee of the journal for helpful comments. All errors are of the authors.
Citation
Oliveira, P.R.d., Kassouf, A.L. and Aquino, J.M.d. (2017), "Cash transfers to the elderly and its spillover effects: Evidences from a non-contributory program in Brazil", Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 183-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/JES-04-2015-0059
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited