Join our next virtual seminar – Forum for Uzbek and Silk Road Studies Virtual Seminars. The speaker is Dr Alma Kudebayeva from KIMEP University, with a presentation titled “Changes in Social Assistance Policies and Subjective Well-being: Lessons from Kazakhstan”.

Abstract: This paper investigates the effectiveness of social assistance policies on subjective well-being (SWB) in the case of Kazakhstan. For this purpose, we explore the policy changes of 2019 and 2020 in regard to social assistance using difference in differences (DiD) statistical techniques. The empirical results support the previous studies that found, in short run, the recipient of social assistance exhibits relatively higher levels of subjective well-being. We find that social assistance brings an incremental increase in Happiness for the recipients who are disabled and female, while a positive increase is seen under Life Satisfaction for the treatment group with disability. As the number of disabled household members increases, we see a decrease in the subjective well-being indices. Moreover, we find that the significant effects on subjective well-being disappear for the younger generations. For female individuals, the statistically significant effect of state intervention does not hold.

Keywords: social assistance subjective well-being disabled Kazakhstan

November 5, 12:00PM London time / 17:00PM Tashkent time
Registration link:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrfuurpjMpGtGmHg9NQ91O0BawQKc_JkMu