In this thesis, South African survey data (which was collected as part of a separate project on ageing and wellbeing), is analysed in order to explore old age social pension-handling and the extent to which social pensions influence decisions about living arrangements. The findings have implications for current policy debates in South Africa and beyond. A key argument against widening the South African social safety net to cover other groups which do not currently have access to grants (such as the unemployed), is based upon the premise that social grants foster dependency. Empirical evidence which suggests that family members move into the households of pensioners has been used to suggest that social grants cultivate a disincentive to work. A Regression Discontinuity design is used to consider the relationship between pensions and household composition around the threshold of age eligibility for a pension. The study contributes new empirical evidence which demonstrates that pensions are linked to changes in living arrangements just before and following the age of eligibility. The changes are not extensive and are restricted to particular age/gender groups. Nevertheless, effects are established, which is not surprising in light of the fact that pensions represent a regular, reliable and principal income source for many South Africans and that, based on new evidence contributed by this study, as well as previous studies, intra-household pension sharing appears to be a pervasive and persistent social norm. Overall, the analysis finds stronger evidence of pensions having either a ‘crowding out’ effect, or no effect at all, as opposed to a ‘crowding in’ effect, which casts doubt on dependency theories. Furthermore, the results suggest that pensions given to men may lead to fewer changes in household composition than pensions given to women. A key difference is that there was no evidence to suggest that for men, pensions are associated with systematic changes in the average number of prime working-age household members. This is generally consistent with findings from previous studies. A key theory regarding gender-based disparities in pension effects, relates to gender-based differences in the extent of intra-household pension sharing. In this study, there was no evidence produced to suggest that beneficiary gender influences the extent of intra-household pension sharing. The methodological challenges associated with the analysis of intra-household income-handling are acknowledged. However, with no evidence of differences in pension sharing behaviour observed, other potential explanations are considered. In particular, it is speculated that gender-based differences in child care provision by pensioners may influence the ability of parents, particularly mothers, to become labour migrants, and that gender-based disparities in life expectancy after pension eligibility age may be important factors.

This research analyses the statistical relationship between income distribution and seven taxation and government expenditure components in Namibia using data from 1996-2016. The research is aimed at creating new knowledge on the research topic because no literature exists for Namibia. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique was employed to assess the long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables in Eviews. The research findings indicated that there is no long-run relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. In the short-run, the research findings indicate that government expenditure on social pensions and government expenditure on education have a balancing effect on income distribution, while tax on products, corporate income tax and customs and excise duties have an unbalancing and/or worsening effect on income distribution. Based on these findings, tertiary education loans are recommended as opposed to grants to ensure sustainability of Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NASFAF). In adjusting corporate and value added taxes, the government is cautioned to avoid overburdening consumers and employees through tax shifting in the form of high prices of goods and services and low wages and benefits. A tax mix, tax discrimination and a hybrid of taxation and government expenditure components are strongly recommended to achieve a balance. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)