Let’s begin with the psychological effects of cash transfers! Molotsky and Handa show that in Malawi, an unconditional cash transfer providing 60/household/year (or 20% of pre-program consumption) had an impact on five measures of psychological well-...
Cash transfers can alleviate poverty-induced stress; but can they also increase it? A new working paper by Jaroszewicz et al shows that cash can augment stress indeed . The study compared the effects of two transfer amounts among over 5,200 low-income...
Social protection is a set of policies and programmes designed to reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability throughout the life-cycle. Social protection caters to nine main areas of need: child and family benefits, maternity protection, unemployment...
The effects of cash transfers on labor market incentives are seldom examined over time. A new paper does precisely that: as part of energy subsidy reforms, Pritadrajati evaluates Indonesia’s three rounds of large unconditional cash transfers (BLT/BLSM)...
The webinar “ The role of local and national actors in linking humanitarian cash and social protection in response to the COVID-19 pandemic ” took place on 13 August 2020. The discussion was moderated by Lois Austin , with guest speakers Danger Nhlabatsi...
Let’s begin by shining a hopeful light on crisis recovery! The Partnership for Economic Inclusion released a juicy preview of the State of Economic Inclusion Report . The preview sets out a clear conceptual framework for integrating economic inclusion...
Let’s begin with a rich synthesis! Beazley et al summarize the performance of select social protection Covid-19 responses in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Uganda . Trade-offs were in full display: Pakistan and Bangladesh showed...
This blog was written with inputs from Sarah Bailey. COVID-19 hit, as several Eastern Caribbean countries and territories were still recovering from the effects of hurricanes. For Small Island Development States, there may be a small silver lining – the...
Let me begin with an important paper on the unintended negative effects of cash transfers. A study by Mora et al examines Ecuador’s Bono Desarollo between 2008 and 2014, and finds that the combined effects of people’s uncertainty on eligibility criteria...
Let’s start with a fascinating example of cash transfers for migrants! Mukherjee documents the Corona Assistance program for Bihari migrant workers stranded outside the state due to the lockdown . The program managed to transfer Rs.1000 ($15) to 2...