The Bite of Administrative Burden: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

The study of administrative burden—experienced in individual encounters with government—is being renewed with new theoretical developments and policy applications. Building on recent developments, this article aims to broaden the conceptual framing of administrative burden and extend its empirical investigation beyond concerns about access to and efficiency of public services to questions of individual and societal impacts. It also expands beyond the typical US or developed country context to examine this phenomenon in the setting of a large social protection program in South Africa, where the “bite” of administrative burden may potentially be bigger. The empirical analysis uses data from the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) evaluation to investigate how CSG program rules and requirements affected administrative burdens and erected barriers to grant receipt. The findings show that 60% of CSG recipients experienced an interruption or disconnection in grant receipt that appears to be associated with administrative burden, with 80% of those stoppages in error. The resulting loss of monthly benefits has significant negative implications for the outcomes of adolescents targeted by the program.