Centro de Políticas Sociais

ABSTRACT                                                         

This paper studies the formation of self-reported health perceptions based on cash transfer programs occurred in Brazil as a policy quasi experiment. First, we gauge the effect of changes in per capita income associated with exogenous changes from official income transfer policies to the low-income elderly population on the reported health perceptions using a difference in difference estimator. We show a distinct gain in the health conditions of the elegible group consistent with the existence of a direct income effect with a casual interpretation implied. We also use this approach to study the evolution of perceptions about access and quality of health services. The results do not show any sizeable change that could explain the self-reported health status changes observed.
Second, we show that true self-reported health status (SRHS) is higher than the health status reported by other household members. Nevertheless, the improvement of the poor elderly health evaluation observed is not affected by the identity of who answer the question.
Finally, we test altruism through the redistribution of resources within households by investigating how individual health perceptions changes are associated with the eligibility of different household members to new official income transfers. The results show an improvement of health perceptions much smaller for the indirect beneficiaries of transfers than those observed for direct beneficiaries living in the same households. This evidence has potential policy implications since increasing transfers to the elderly poor in Brazil did not seem to generate sizeable externality to other household members individual well-being levels. The fact that the elderly live in small families also diminishes the derived welfare impact from new transfers observed.

REFERENCES
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Site
NERI, Marcelo C. Intra-Household Redistribution and Health Perceptions. 2019. FGV Social. Available online at: <https://cps.fgv.br/en/intra-household-redistribution-and-health-perceptions>