Impact Evaluation of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Program

In 2005 the Government of Indonesia introduced an unconditional cash transfer program called the ‘Bantuan Langsung Tunai’ (BLT), aimed at assisting poor people who were suffering from the removal of a fuel subsidy. There are concerns, however, that the introduction of a public transfer system can negatively affect inter-household transfers through the crowding-out effect, which exists when donor households reduce the amount of their transfers in line with public transfers received from the government. The poor may not therefore have received any meaningful impact from the public cash transfer, as they potentially receive fewer transfers from inter-household private donors. For the government to design a public transfer system, it is necessary to properly understand the dynamics of private transfer behaviour. Hence, this study evaluates whether there exists a crowding-out effect of public transfers on inter-household transfers in Indonesia.Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) and by applying Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and Difference-in-differences (DID) approaches, this study found that the likelihood to receive transfers from other family members (non-co-resident) reduces when the household receives BLT. However, there is no significant impact of BLT on transfers from parents and friends.

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Birth Order Effect Under a Cash Transfer Program

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3010113 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Kensuke Maeba

Keyword(s):

Birth Order ◽

Order Effect ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Transfer Program ◽

Birth Order Effect

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Poverty Relief Programs in Postcommunist Countries: A Case Study on the Albanian and Chinese Programs

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211027871 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 215824402110278

Author(s):

Gentian Qejvanaj

Keyword(s):

Rural Areas ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Basic Income ◽

Transfer Program ◽

Means Testing ◽

Poverty Relief ◽

Private Expenditure ◽

Working Age ◽

Working Age Population ◽

The Cost

Social assistance is a cash transfer program targeting the poorest households. China has created the Dibao (DB), meaning minimum livelihood guarantee, the most extensive unconditional cash transfer program globally with over 70 million people covered, whereas in Albania, the Ndhime Ekonomike (NE) meaning financial help covers around 15% of the total working-age population. Both programs are means-tested, have strict requirements for eligibility, and have been enlarged and modified in time to improve targeting and tackling leakage. In this article, we will look at similarities and common issues first, and then calculate the cost of enlarging both programs to all working-age population with no means-testing. We argue that a UBI (universal basic income) can increase private expenditure in health and education while costing less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in both countries’ rural areas. We will conclude by looking at how the COVID-19 outbreak is pushing developing countries toward a UBI by first adopting a temporary basic income (TBI).

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