Impact of elderly pension policy on the nutritional outcomes of grandkids in multigenerational households in Nepal

Santosh Bhattarai and Benjamin Schwab

No 404657, 2026 Annual Meeting, July 26 - 28, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: As the elderly population in developing nations across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continues to grow, many countries have expanded or considered expanding non-contributory pension programs. Beyond their impact on direct beneficiaries, increased transfers to the elderly may also affect younger generations with direct ties to recipients. How might such transfers impact the nutritional outcomes of grandchildren living in the same household as recipients? We examine this question using Nepal’s old age allowance (OAA) program. Nepal’s 2008 OAA expansion lowered the eligibility threshold from age 75 to 70 for general population and to age 60 for Dalit households nationwide and five districts of Karnali province. We estimate the causal effect of pension expansion on child anthropometric outcomes using the Flexible DiD estimator across five rounds of Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2022). We find no evidence that the pension expansion did improved child anthropometry. In contrast, estimated average treatment effects on the treated are consistently negative. Event-study estimates reveal an immediate negative, though imprecisely estimated, shift in child height and weight at the first post treatment survey round. The pension expansion causes a statistically significant increase in household size, which may have diluted per child resource availability. We find a significant reduction in the probability of child consuming fruits and vegetables in the treated households, while animal source nutrients intake show no significant response. Placebo tests using time invariant household assets indicates these results cannot be explained solely by differential sample selection. We also find no evidence that maternal health, fertility behavior, and female labor supply drive the child nutrition result. In contrast to previous studies, we find no support for the hypothesis that expanded elderly pensions benefit co-residing children.

Keywords: International; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea26:404657

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.404657

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