Malaki Ronald Mandela

Abstract: In high-unemployment settings, the link between poor health and economic opportunity is clear. However, a key issue for policymakers is how health interacts with social support systems, particularly cash transfers. This study uses dynamic models and South African panel data to examine how returns to health on hours worked and labor force participation (LFP) differ by gender and race, and interact with the Child Support Grant (CSG). I find that being healthier than average improves both outcomes, but gains are unequal. Compared to men, women are less likely to participate in labor force, and hours worked respond less to health variations for women, though not LFP decisions. For White and Asian individuals, moving above average health significantly boosts both margins, with particularly large LFP effects. Coloured individuals show health effects concentrated on LFP rather than hours. The CSG increases hours worked but reduces participation for men, with this negative effect fully offset for women who are the majority of recipients. Overall these heterogeneous effects suggest combining health investments with targeted income support may be more effective than pursuing either separately.

With Christine Eckert, Mehdi Hosseinkouchack, Natalina Zlatevskac

Abstract: Do voluntary nutrition policies improve dietary quality, and for whom? We evaluate Australia's 2014 Health Star Rating (HSR) system using five waves of HILDA data (2007-2021). Implementing a quasi-difference-in-differences design that defines treatment exposure by baseline diet quality, we find no significant average treatment effect. However, stratifying by Locus of Control (LoC) reveals significant heterogeneous effects. The policy generated substantial gains in diet quality among parents with low-to-moderate internal LoC but had no additional effect on parents with high internal LoC. These findings, robust to multiple checks, show that voluntary information policies are most effective when they provide simple, external cues to individuals who are motivated by external obligations (parenthood) but lack strong internal agency. Our results provide compelling evidence that effective policy design requires a deep understanding of the psychological mechanisms that drive human behavior, showing that the same informational cue can be ignored by one person but transformative for another.

Evaluating the impact of tax policies in Kenya.