Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/305271 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
QUCEH Working Paper Series No. 24-09
Publisher: 
Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH), Belfast
Abstract: 
A large literature argues that resource constraints inhibit human capital accumulation. We test this hypothesis using the introduction of the Old Age Pension in Ireland in 1908, evaluating its spillover on school enrolments within multigenerational households. Exploiting the OAP's age-based and means-test criteria, we identify the causal effect of the cash transfer on enrolments for children aged 14 to 16 using data from the 1901 and 1911 Censuses of Ireland. The OAP increased the school enrolments of the poorest children by 8 per cent, while no effect is detected for wealthier households. This suggests that when poverty constrains schooling, unconditional cash transfers amplify a household's demand for education by reducing the opportunity costs of schooling.
Subjects: 
schooling
poverty
old age pension
cash transfer
human capital
economic history of Ireland
JEL: 
D31
H55
I25
J18
J24
N33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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