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 the short run, the recipients of social assistance exhibit 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, whilst a positive increase is seen under Life Satisfaction for the recipients with disabilities. As the number of disabled household members increases, we see a decrease in the subjective well‐being indices. Moreover, by assessing the age groups, we find that the short‐run positive impact of social assistance on Happiness disappears for the recipients who are below 44 years of age. By gender, no statistical significance has been found amongst female recipients either in Happiness or Life Satisfaction .