The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant
The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant
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无条件现金转移对营养的影响：南非儿童抚养补助金
DOI：
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发表时间：
2006
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
I. Woolard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jorge M. Agüero;M. Carter;I. Woolard
鉴于研究认为营养的收入弹性很低，新一代现金转移方案旨在促进贫困家庭儿童营养的目标似乎令人惊讶。这一意见尤其适用于南非的无条件子女抚养补助金，该补助金向家庭提供现金赠款，不附带任何条件。然而，与早期研究中发现营养弹性低的市场产生的收入增加相反，南非现金转移产生的收入增加几乎完全分配给妇女。由于计划推出缓慢，夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省受益人接受CSG治疗的程度产生了外源性变化，本工作文件利用Hirano和Imbens（2004年）的连续治疗方法，以儿童年龄身高为衡量标准，估计这些转移对儿童营养的影响。研究表明，在生命早期进行大剂量的CSG治疗可显着提高儿童身高。根据文献中的最佳估计，这些估计的身高增长反过来表明，接受治疗的儿童的成人收入大幅增加，CSG付款的贴现率在160%至230%之间。
In light of research that has argued that the income elasticity of nutrition is low, the goal of a new generation of cash transfer programmes to boost the nutrition of poor families' children may seem surprising. This observation applies especially to South Africa's unconditional Child Support Grant (CSG), in which cash grants are made to families with no strings attached. However, in contrast to the market-generated income increases that identified low nutritional elasticities in the earlier studies, the income increases generated by the South African cash transfers are almost exclusively assigned to women. Taking advantage of a slow programme rollout that created exogenous variation in the extent of CSG treatment received by beneficiaries in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, this Working Paper utilizes the continuous treatment method of Hirano and Imbens (2004) to estimate the impact of these transfers on child nutrition as measured by child height-for-age. Large dosages of CSG treatment early in life are shown to significantly boost child height. Drawing on the best estimates in the literature, these estimated height gains in turn suggest large adult earnings increases for treated children and a discounted rate of return on CSG payments of between 160 per cent and 230 per cent.