Pension Transfers and farm household technical efficiency: Evidence from South Africa

This article analyzes the effect of entitlements from the Old Age Pension Program of South Africa on household technical efficiency using a sample of farm households in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. The analysis is at the household level, and off-farm activities are considered as addit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of agricultural economics 2011-10, Vol.93 (5), p.1391-1405
Main Author: Lovo, Stefania
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Agricultural economics
Agricultural households
Agriculture
best available technology
Efficiency
Efficiency metrics
elderly
Eligibility
Estimation
Farmers
Farms
Household budgets
household technical efficiency
Households
Income shares
Liquidity
Old age benefits
Pension eligibility
Pension plans
Pensions
Production efficiency
South Africa
Studies
Technical efficiency
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article analyzes the effect of entitlements from the Old Age Pension Program of South Africa on household technical efficiency using a sample of farm households in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. The analysis is at the household level, and off-farm activities are considered as additional outputs in a nonparametric estimation of technical efficiency. This approach captures the jointness between farm and off-farm activities. The pension's effect is identified by exploiting the age-eligibility criteria in the pension program. Results show a positive effect of the pension and suggest that this large cash transfer can improve households' ability to make use of the best available technologies.
ISSN:0002-9092
1467-8276
DOI:10.1093/ajae/aar051