Finding the Benefits: Estimating the Impact of The South African Child Support Grant

This paper estimates the impact of the S outh A frican Child Support Grant ( CSG ) on child health, nutrition and education. Data from the 2008 S outh A frican National Income Dynamics Study are used to estimate the impact of the CSG on six different outcomes measuring child well‐being. We find a positive treatment effect of the CSG on children's height‐for‐age, progress through the school system, as well as household expenditure on food items using a continuous treatment estimator developed by H irano and I mbens. Robustness analysis using the inverse probability weighting approach by F lores and M itnik is also implemented. Although these estimates provide some evidence of a positive impact resulting from the CSG , they are not conclusive in showing that the cash transfers are spent mainly on improving the lives of beneficiary children, as the treatment effects are quite small.