PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kate Ambler
TI  - Bargaining with Grandma: The Impact of the South African Pension on Household Decision Making
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.51.4.0314-6265R1
DP  - 2015 Nov 30
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2015/11/20/jhr.51.4.0314-6265R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2015/11/20/jhr.51.4.0314-6265R1.full
AB  - I examine how an exogenous change in individual income affects decision making in the household. Using the age discontinuity in eligibility for the South African pension, I find that eligible women are 15 percentage points more likely to be the primary decision maker in the household than non-eligible women. This corresponds with a large increase in their share of household income. There are no parallel effects for men. Due to labor force withdrawal, male income does not increase with eligibility, suggesting that their status in the household is unchanged.