This document presents a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of Bolivia's Renta Dignidad, a universal and non-contributory old age pension. Causal effects on direct, future, and indirect beneficiaries are identified, taking advantage of a reduction in age of eligibility from 65 to 60 years in...

The Benefício de Prestação Continuada (BPC) program is a non‐contributory pension addressed to poor elders over 65 years‐old. This paper evaluates its effects on household composition and on labor market outcomes of the elders and their co‐residing relatives. We could not capture any...

Cash transfers can affect labor supply through two channels: current transfers and anticipated future transfers. I develop a framework that jointly estimates both channels using a difference-in-differences model. I apply the framework to the noncontributory pension program in South Africa, which...

This report, based primarily on open-ended interviews with 40 people living in Essex affected by the 2012 UK Welfare Reform Act, analyses the financial, subjective and social effects of Welfare Reform on those participants. Almost all participants were affected by having to pay the Spare Room...

Social security programs generally seek to provide insurance and to reduce poverty and inequality. Providing insurance requires little redistribution. But reducing inequality and alleviating poverty do require redistribution. To reduce inequality, programs must redistribute income, but...

This paper presents new evidence on the effects of retirement benefits on labor force participation decisions. The analysis is based on a mandated rule for employer-provided retirement benefits in Austria that creates discontinuities in the incentives for workers to delay retirement. We present...

Precipitated by rapid globalization, rising inequality, population growth, and longevity gains, social protection programs have been on the rise in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the last three decades. However, the introduction of public benefits could displace informal mechanisms...

This paper presents new evidence on the effects of retirement benefits on labor force participation decisions. The analysis is based on a mandated rule for employer-provided retirement benefits in Austria that creates discontinuities in the incentives for workers to delay retirement. We present...

This paper reports the frequency and extent of intra-family cash transfers: both transfers from older households to their children and grandchildren, and vice versa. It also shows how these transfers are correlated with income levels and compares the asset and income levels of households that...