Women’s autonomy and old age pension transfer in South Africa

AbstractMuch of the existing literature contends that income is a key determinant of women’s autonomy. Yet the causal connection between income and women’s autonomy is difficult to pin down, given the obvious endogeneity bias that may arise from reverse causality and omitting confounding variables correlated with income and women’s autonomy measures. The study assigned a treatment based on the age discontinuity in eligibility for Old Age Pension (OAP) income transfer to investigate the causal effect of income on women’s autonomy. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) and a quantile treatment effect, the study found that women’s autonomy responds to changes in income. Moreover, the results from these alternative specifications confirm that the OAP income transfer effect is heterogeneous across the index of women’s autonomy distribution. Specifically, the quantile treatment effect evaluation shows that income transfer has no effect among women with a high degree of autonomy and a low degree of autonomy. However, it bolsters the autonomy that ranges between these extremes.Keywords: Women’s autonomyold age pension transferregression discontinuity design (RDD)quantile treatment effect (QTE) AcknowledgementThe greater part of this article’s contents came from my PhD thesis submitted to the University of Witwatersrand (Wits). Therefore, this publication acknowledges the university’s rights and confirms that there is no conflict of interest regarding the copyright of the thesis.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The requirement for a means test is as follows: an individual household must not earn more than R172560 for married persons or R86280 for a single person to be a beneficiary. In addition, assets must not be worth more than R455200 for a married couple or R1227600 for a single person. Since a means test is compulsory for administrative purposes, the question is whether we can allocate individuals to treatment without it. However, OAP may increase for beneficiaries from R1860 at age 60. At age 75 and above, beneficiaries will receive R1880. For more detailed information see: South African Government (Citation2019) Old age pension retrieved from the website: https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits-retirement-and-old-age/old-age-pensionAlthough Ambler (Citation2016) suggested that a means test is not mandatory for most South African blacks, the age of eligibility is compulsory.2 Bergmann (Citation1995) and Pollak (Citation2002) view Becker's theory as having unrealistic conclusions in his paper titled “Becker's Theory of the Family: Preposterous Conclusions," and other feminist economists come to a similar conclusion.3 For more detail see Becker (Citation1981)4 For detail see Chiappori (Citation1992)5 See McElroy and Horney (Citation1990) for more detail6 Interested readers are referred to Frandsen et al. (Citation2012) for details on the model and applications.7 Quantile treatment effect (QTE) is a unique tool to estimate the dependent variable with connecting nature where the independent variable includes treatment and control (Angrist & Pischke, Citation2008).Additional informationNotes on contributorsOlanrewaju Adewole AdediranOlanrewaju Adewole Adediran has a PhD in economics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Sustainable Livelihoods, School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa. His research areas of interest include gender issues, applied econometrics, development, health, and labour economics.