Pensions for the Poor: the Effects of Non-contributory Pensions in El Salvador
Tóm tắt
Most Salvadorans reach retirement age without a formal pension, resulting in increased financial vulnerability and poverty in old age. Moreover, fewer women qualify for a formal pension and the average amounts for women are smaller. In this paper, we study gender-disaggregated effects of the Universal Basic Pension (UBP), a non-contributory pension of $50 per month for individuals aged 70 years and over in extreme poverty. We analyze a purpose-specific sample of 2256 households with adults between 66 and 74 years of age in the 32 poorest municipalities in the country using an instrumental variables approach. We contribute to the literature on non-contributory pensions by exploring new outcomes and analyzing gender differentiated effects. Independent of the recipient’s gender, we find that the pension increases non-labor income by 53% on average, lowering the probability that a beneficiary household lives below the extreme poverty line by 17 percentage points for males and 8.1 percentage points for females. Increases in food consumption and medical attention, and reductions in remittances are qualitatively larger for male pensioners. Pensioners appear to have gender-specific preferences with regard to investments in children, with increases in school enrollment and attendance for boys aged 11 to 18 years in households with a male pensioner and of girls of the same age in households with a female pensioner.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Ardington C, Case A, Hosegood V. Labor supply responses to large social transfers: longitudinal evidence from South Africa. Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2009;1(1).
Barrientos A, Lloyd-Sherlock P. Non-contributory pensions and social protection. Geneva: International Labor Organization; 2002.
Bertrand M, Mullainathan S, Miller D. Public policy and extended families: evidence from pensions in South Africa. World Bank Econ Rev. 2003;17.
Bertranou F. Los Programas del Primer Pilar en América Latina. en El Fortalecimiento de los Nuevos Sistemas Previsionales: El Rol de cada Pilar en la Solución del Problema de las Pensiones, FIAP, Edited by CIEDESS, Santiago de Chile, December 2005; 2005.
Bertranou F and Grushka CO. The non-contributory pension programme in Argentina: assessing the impact on poverty reduction. ESS Paper 5, International Labor Organization; 2002.
Bosch M, Melguizo A, Pagés C. Better pensions, better jobs: Towards universal coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean. Inter-American Development Bank, 2013.
Burbidge JB, Magee L, Robb AL. Alternative transformations to handle extreme values of the dependent variable. J Am Stat Assoc. 1988;83(401):123–7.
Carvalho Filho IE d. Old-age benefits and retirement decisions of rural elderly in Brazil. J Dev Econ. 2008;86(1).
Carvalho Filho IE d. Household income as a determinant of child labor and school enrollment in Brazil: evidence from a social security reform. Econ Dev Cult Chang. 2012;60(2):399–435.
Case A, Deaton A. Large cash transfers to the elderly in South Africa. Econ J. 1998;108(450).
Cecchini S and Martínez R. Protección Social Inclusiva en América Latina – una mirada integral, un enfoque de derechos, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CABEI); 2011.
Delgado G, Cardoso JC, editors. A Universalizacao de Direitos Sociais no Brazil: a Previdencia Rural nos anos 90: IPEA; 2000.
Dethier J. Social security: what can developing countries learn from developed countries? En 2020 Vision Briefs BB20, Special Edition. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); 2007.
Dethier J, Pestieau P, Ali R. Universal minimum old age pensions: impact on poverty and fiscal cost in 18 Latin American countries. In: En World Bank policy research working paper series, no. 5541; 2010.
Edmonds EV. Child labor and schooling responses to anticipated income in South Africa. J Dev Econ. 2006;81(2):386–414.
Escobar Loza F, Martínez S Mendizábal J. El Impacto de la Renta Dignidad: Política de Redistribución del Ingreso, Consumo y Reducción de la Pobreza en Hogares con Personas Adultas Mayores”, Unit for the Analysis of Social and Economic Policies (UDAPE); 2013.
Galiani S, Gertler P, Bando R, (2016) Non-contributory pensions. Labour Economics 38:47-58
Galiani S, Weinschelbaum F. Modeling informality formally: households and firms. Econ Inq. 2012;50(3).
Gasparini L, et al. Poverty among the elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean. CEDLAS; 2007.
Gertler P, Galiani S. Evaluación de Impacto del Programa Pensión 65: Nueva evidencia causal de las pensiones no contributivas en Perú. Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, Lima; 2016.
Hahn J, Todd P, Van der Klaauw W. Identification and estimation of treatment effects with regression-discontinuity design. Econometrica. 2001;69(1).
Hernani-Limarino W, Mena G. Intended and unintended effects of unconditional cash transfers: the Case of Bolivia’s Renta Dignidad (no. IDB-WP-631). In: IDB working paper series; 2015.
Herrmann T, Leckcivilize A, Zenker J. The impact of cash transfers on child outcomes in rural Thailand: evidence from a social pension reform (no. 77): Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research; 2017.
Holzmann R and Jousten A. Addressing the legacy costs in an NDC reform: conceptualization, measurement, financing. mimeo; 2010.
Imbens G, Lemieux T. Regression discontinuity designs: a guide to practice. J Econ. 2008;142.
Jensen R. Public transfers, private transfers, and the “crowding out” hypothesis: theory and evidence from South Africa. In: mimeo; 1996.
Juarez L. The effect of an old-age demogrant on the labor supply and time use of the elderly and non-elderly in Mexico. BE J Econ Anal Policy. 2010;10(1).
Juárez González L, Pfutze T. The effects of a non-contributory pension program on labor force participation: the case of 70 y Más in Mexico (no. 2014-12): Working Papers, Banco de México; 2014.
Lee D, Lemieux T. Regression discontinuity designs in economics. J Econ Lit Am Econ Assoc. 2010;48(2).
Levy S. Good intentions, bad outcomes: social policy, informality, and economic growth in Mexico: Brookings Institution Press; 2010.
MacKinnon JG, Magee L. Transforming the dependent variable in regression models. Int Econ Rev. 1990:315–39.
McKinnon and Sigg. The Role and Nature of Non-Contributory Social Security in the Design of Social Protection Strategies for Older People in DCs. Working Papers id:525, eSocialSciences; 2006.
Martinez S. Pensions, poverty and household investments in Bolivia. Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkeley; 2004.
OCDE, BID, WB. Panorama de las Pensiones: América Latina y el Caribe. Washington. D. C.; 2015.
Pence KM. The role of wealth transformations: an application to estimating the effect of tax incentives on saving. BE J Econ Anal Policy. 2006;5(1).
Ponczek V. Income and bargaining effects on education and health in Brazil. J Dev Econ. 2011;94(2):242–53.
Posel D, Fairburn JA, Lund F. Labour migration and households: a reconsideration of the effects of the social pension on labour supply in South Africa. Econ Model. 2006;23(5):836–53.
Rofman R, Apella I, Vezza E. Más allá de las pensiones contributivas. Catorce experiencias en América Latina: Banco Mundial; 2013.
Samson M. Social pensions and poverty reduction,” prepared for the Simposio de Pensiones Sociales de la International Federation of Ageing, 8th Global Conference, “Global Ageing: The North- South Challenge,” Copenhagen, May 30–June 3; 2006.