Another Brick on the Wall: On the Effects of Non-Contributory Pensions on Material and Subjective Well Being

Rosangela Bando, Sebastian Galiani and Paul Gertler

No 11095, IDB Publications (Working Papers) from Inter-American Development Bank

Abstract: Public expenditures on non-contributory pensions are equivalent to at least 1 percent of GDP in several countries in Latin America and is expected to increase. We explore the effect of non-contributory pensions on the well-being of the beneficiary population by studying the "Pensiones Alimentarias" program established by law in Paraguay, which targets older adults living in poverty. Households with a beneficiary increased their level of consumption by 44 percent. The program improved subjective well-being in 0.48 standard deviations. These effects are consistent with the findings of Bando, Galiani and Gertler (2020) and Galiani, Gertler and Bando (2016) in their studies on the non-contributory pension schemes in Peru and Mexico. Thus, we conclude that the effects of non-contributory pensions on well-being in Paraguay are comparable to those found for Peru and Mexico and add to the construction of external validity.

Keywords: Poverty; Non-contributory pensions; Mental health; Well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H3 H4 I1 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hap and nep-ltv
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Related works:
Journal Article: Another brick on the wall: On the effects of non-contributory pensions on material and subjective well being (2022)
Working Paper: Another brick on the Wall: On the Effects of Non-Contributory Pensions on Material and Subjective Well Being (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idb:brikps:11095

DOI: 10.18235/0003082

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