Poverty is again at the center of debates about development. Dominant international institutions have committed themselves to addressing poverty, notably the World Bank, through its Poverty Reduction Strategies, and the United Nations, through the Millennium Development Goals. Discussion has...

The end of apartheid in South Africa brought with it the need to reform one component of the system of social assistance for poorer people – that dealing with support to women and children. Under the old regime, a State Maintenance Grant had been awarded by government to help mothers without...

We analyze longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance area (DSA) in KwaZulu-Natal, to examine the impact of parental death on children’s outcomes. We find significant differences in the impact of mothers’ and fathers’ deaths. The loss of a child’s mother is a strong predictor of...

An Apartheid-driven spatial mismatch between workers and jobs leads to high job search costs for people living in rural areas of South Africa—costs that many young people cannot pay. In this paper, we examine whether the arrival of a social grant – specifically a generous state old age...