TY  - JOUR
AU  - Edmonds,Eric
AU  - Mammen,Kristin
AU  - Miller,Douglas L.
TI  - Rearranging the Family? Income Support and Elderly Living Arrangements in a Low Income Country
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10306
PY  - 2004
Y2  - February 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10306
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10306.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Eric V. Edmonds
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-2944
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: Eric.V.Edmonds@Dartmouth.edu

Douglas L. Miller
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8578
Tel: 530/752-8490
E-Mail: dlmiller@ucdavis.edu
AB  - Despite the importance of living arrangements for well-being and production, the effect of changes in household income on living arrangements is not well understood. This study overcomes the identification problems that have limited the study of the link between income and living arrangements by exploiting a discontinuity in the benefit formula for the social pension in South Africa. In contrast to the findings of the existing literature from wealthier populations, we find no evidence that pension income is used to maintain the independence of black elders in South Africa. Rather, potential beneficiaries alter their household structure. Prime working age women depart, and we observe an increase in children under 5 and young women of child-bearing age. These shifts in co-residence patterns are consistent with a setting where prime age women have comparative advantage in work away from extended family relative to younger women. The additional income from old age support may induce a change in living arrangements to exploit this advantage.
ER  -