Cash transfers and the supply of labor by poor households: Evidence from the livelihood empowerment against poverty program in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Osei ◽  
Monica Lambon‐Quayefio
Keyword(s):  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Poverty Program

scholarly journals Voter Response to Peak and End Transfers: Evidence from a Conditional Cash Transfer Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Galiani ◽  
Nadya Hajj ◽  
Patrick J. McEwan ◽  
Pablo Ibarrarán ◽  
Nandita Krishnaswamy
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Experimental Finding ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Experiment ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Incumbent Party

In a Honduran field experiment, sequences of cash transfers to poor households varied in amount of the largest (peak) and last (end) transfers. Larger peak-end transfers increased voter turnout and the incumbent party’s vote share in the 2013 presidential election, independently of cumulative transfers. A plausible explanation is that voters succumbed to a common cognitive bias by applying peak-end heuristics. Another is that voters deliberately used peak-end transfers to update beliefs about the incumbent party. In either case, the results provide experimental evidence on the classic non-experimental finding that voters are especially sensitive to recent economic activity. (JEL C93, D72, I32, O15, O17)

Assistance to poor households when income is not observed: targeted in-kind and in-cash transfers

2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago M. Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Poor Households

scholarly journals The Distributional Effects of Value-Added Taxes in OECD Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alastair Thomas
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Microsimulation Models ◽  
Distributional Impact

<p>Most OECD countries’ value-added tax (VAT) systems apply reduced VAT rates to a selection of expenditure items in order to achieve distributional goals, and – to a lesser extent – social, cultural and employment-related goals. This thesis investigates the distributional effects of the VAT in OECD countries, and the merits of using reduced VAT rates to achieve distributional goals. The research adopts a microsimulation modelling approach that draws on household expenditure microdata from household budget surveys for an unprecedented 27 OECD countries. A consistent microsimulation methodology is adopted to ensure cross-country comparability of results.  Non-behavioural VAT microsimulation models are first built to examine the overall distributional impact of the current VAT systems in each country. The research assesses the competing methodological approaches used in previous studies, highlighting the misleading effect of savings patterns on cross-sectional analysis when VAT burdens are measured relative to income. Measuring VAT burdens relative to expenditure – thereby removing the influence of savings – is found to provide a more reliable picture of the distributional impact of the VAT. On this basis, the VAT is found to be either roughly proportional or slightly progressive in most of the 27 OECD countries examined. Nevertheless, results for a small number of countries (Chile, Hungary, Latvia and New Zealand) highlight that broad-based VAT systems that have few reduced VAT rates or exemptions can produce a small degree of regressivity. Results also show that even a roughly proportional VAT can still have significant equity implications for the poor – potentially pushing some households into poverty.  Behavioural VAT microsimulation models are then built for 23 OECD countries to investigate whether reduced VAT rates are an effective way to support poorer households, and whether the use of targeted cash transfers would be more effective. The behavioural microsimulation methodology follows the Linear Expenditure System based approach of Creedy and Sleeman (2006). Complementing this approach, a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) is estimated specifically for New Zealand, thereby providing the first estimates of a QUAIDS model based on New Zealand data.   Simulation results show that, as a whole, the reduced VAT rates present in most OECD countries tend to have a small progressive impact. However, despite this progressivity, reduced VAT rates are shown to be a highly ineffective mechanism for targeting support to poorer households: not only do rich households benefit from reduced rates, but they benefit more in aggregate terms than poor households do. When looking at reduced VAT rates applied to specific products, results are found to vary considerably. Reduced VAT rates specifically introduced to support the poor (such as reduced rates on food consumed at home and domestic utilities) are generally found to have a progressive impact, though rich households still receive a larger aggregate benefit than poor households. In contrast, reduced VAT rates introduced to address non-distributional goals (such as reduced rates on restaurants, hotels, and cultural and social expenditure) often have a regressive impact.  Additional simulation results show that an income-tested cash transfer will better target support to poorer households than reduced VAT rates in all countries. Furthermore, even a universal cash transfer is found to better target poorer households than reduced VAT rates. However, results also show that it is very difficult for an income-tested cash transfer to fully compensate all poor households for the removal of reduced VAT rates. This is due to the significant variation in the underlying consumption patterns across households. While a small number of poor households lose out from replacing reduced VAT rates with targeted cash transfers, those that receive support are instead determined by income and family characteristics as opposed to consumption tastes – thereby increasing horizontal equity. Furthermore, many households are lifted out of poverty as revenue previously transferred to richer households is now transferred to poorer households.   These results empirically confirm the theoretical expectation that, where available, direct mechanisms (whether via the income tax or benefit system) will better achieve distributional goals than reduced VAT rates. Countries that currently employ reduced VAT rates to achieve distributional goals should therefore consider removing these reduced rates and adjusting their income tax or benefit systems to achieve these distributional goals instead. Countries should also consider removing reduced VAT rates aimed at non-distributional goals where a more effective instrument is available to achieve the particular policy goal. At a minimum, the merits of these reduced VAT rates should be reassessed in light of their negative distributional impact.</p>

scholarly journals The Short-term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: Experimental Evidence from Kenya*

2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
pp. 1973-2042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Haushofer ◽  
Jeremy Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Rural Kenya ◽  
Unconditional Cash Transfers ◽  
The Village ◽  
Improve Food Security

Abstract We use a randomized controlled trial to study the response of poor households in rural Kenya to unconditional cash transfers from the NGO GiveDirectly. The transfers differ from other programs in that they are explicitly unconditional, large, and concentrated in time. We randomized at both the village and household levels; furthermore, within the treatment group, we randomized recipient gender (wife versus husband), transfer timing (lump-sum transfer versus monthly installments), and transfer magnitude (US$404 PPP versus US$1,525 PPP). We find a strong consumption response to transfers, with an increase in household monthly consumption from $158 PPP to $193 PPP nine months after the transfer began. Transfer recipients experience large increases in psychological well-being. We find no overall effect on levels of the stress hormone cortisol, although there are differences across some subgroups. Monthly transfers are more likely than lump-sum transfers to improve food security, whereas lump-sum transfers are more likely to be spent on durables, suggesting that households face savings and credit constraints. Together, these results suggest that unconditional cash transfers have significant impacts on economic outcomes and psychological well-being.

Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Stoeffler ◽  
Bradford Mills ◽  
Patrick Premand
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Quasi Experimental

scholarly journals The Role of Stomach Infrastructures on Children’s Work and Child Labour in Africa: Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 8563
Author(s):  
Dagim Dawit Gonsamo ◽  
Herman Hay Ming Lo ◽  
Ko Ling Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Vulnerable Families ◽  
Children’S Work

Child labour remains a prevalent global concern, and progress toward eradicating harmful children’s work appears to have stalled in the African continent and henceforth, integrated social policy intervention is still required to address the problem. Among several forms of social policy interventions, stomach infrastructure (i.e., in-kind and/or cash transfers) have been a key policy approach to support vulnerable families to lighten households’ resources burden, which forces them to consider child labour as a coping strategy. There is growing evidence on the impacts of these programs in child labour. However, this evidence is often mixed regarding children’s work outcomes, and the existing studies hardly describe such heterogeneous outcomes from the child-sensitive approach. To this end, a systematic literature search was conducted for studies in African countries. From 743 references retrieved in this study, 27 studies were included for the review, and a narrative approach has been employed to analyse extracted evidence. Results from the current study also demonstrate a mixed effect of in-kind and cash transfers for poor households on child labour decisions. Hence, the finding from the current review also demonstrates a reduced participation of children in paid and unpaid work outside the household due to in-kind and cash transfers to poor households, but children’s time spent in economic and non-economic household labour and farm and non-farm labour, which are detrimental to child health and schooling, has been reported increasing due to the program interventions. The question remains how these programs can effectively consider child-specific and household-related key characteristics. To this end, a child-sensitive social protection perspective has been applied in this study to explain these mixed outcomes to inform policy design.

scholarly journals Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data to Better Measure Income: Implications for Poverty, Program Effectiveness, and Holes in the Safety Net

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. Meyer ◽  
Nikolas Mittag
Keyword(s):  
Administrative Data ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Program Effectiveness ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Housing Assistance ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Survey Error ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Poverty Program ◽  
Combined Data

We examine the consequences of survey underreporting of transfer programs for prototypical analyses of low-income populations. We link administrative data for four transfer programs to the CPS to correct its severe understatement of transfer dollars received. Using survey data sharply understates the income of poor households, distorts our understanding of program targeting, and greatly understates the effects of anti-poverty programs. Using the combined data, the poverty-reducing effect of all programs together is nearly doubled. The effect of housing assistance is tripled. Correcting survey error often reduces the share of single mothers falling through the safety net by one-half or more. (JEL C83, I32, I38)

scholarly journals The Distributional Effects of Value-Added Taxes in OECD Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alastair Thomas
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Microsimulation Models ◽  
Distributional Impact

<p>Most OECD countries’ value-added tax (VAT) systems apply reduced VAT rates to a selection of expenditure items in order to achieve distributional goals, and – to a lesser extent – social, cultural and employment-related goals. This thesis investigates the distributional effects of the VAT in OECD countries, and the merits of using reduced VAT rates to achieve distributional goals. The research adopts a microsimulation modelling approach that draws on household expenditure microdata from household budget surveys for an unprecedented 27 OECD countries. A consistent microsimulation methodology is adopted to ensure cross-country comparability of results.  Non-behavioural VAT microsimulation models are first built to examine the overall distributional impact of the current VAT systems in each country. The research assesses the competing methodological approaches used in previous studies, highlighting the misleading effect of savings patterns on cross-sectional analysis when VAT burdens are measured relative to income. Measuring VAT burdens relative to expenditure – thereby removing the influence of savings – is found to provide a more reliable picture of the distributional impact of the VAT. On this basis, the VAT is found to be either roughly proportional or slightly progressive in most of the 27 OECD countries examined. Nevertheless, results for a small number of countries (Chile, Hungary, Latvia and New Zealand) highlight that broad-based VAT systems that have few reduced VAT rates or exemptions can produce a small degree of regressivity. Results also show that even a roughly proportional VAT can still have significant equity implications for the poor – potentially pushing some households into poverty.  Behavioural VAT microsimulation models are then built for 23 OECD countries to investigate whether reduced VAT rates are an effective way to support poorer households, and whether the use of targeted cash transfers would be more effective. The behavioural microsimulation methodology follows the Linear Expenditure System based approach of Creedy and Sleeman (2006). Complementing this approach, a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) is estimated specifically for New Zealand, thereby providing the first estimates of a QUAIDS model based on New Zealand data.   Simulation results show that, as a whole, the reduced VAT rates present in most OECD countries tend to have a small progressive impact. However, despite this progressivity, reduced VAT rates are shown to be a highly ineffective mechanism for targeting support to poorer households: not only do rich households benefit from reduced rates, but they benefit more in aggregate terms than poor households do. When looking at reduced VAT rates applied to specific products, results are found to vary considerably. Reduced VAT rates specifically introduced to support the poor (such as reduced rates on food consumed at home and domestic utilities) are generally found to have a progressive impact, though rich households still receive a larger aggregate benefit than poor households. In contrast, reduced VAT rates introduced to address non-distributional goals (such as reduced rates on restaurants, hotels, and cultural and social expenditure) often have a regressive impact.  Additional simulation results show that an income-tested cash transfer will better target support to poorer households than reduced VAT rates in all countries. Furthermore, even a universal cash transfer is found to better target poorer households than reduced VAT rates. However, results also show that it is very difficult for an income-tested cash transfer to fully compensate all poor households for the removal of reduced VAT rates. This is due to the significant variation in the underlying consumption patterns across households. While a small number of poor households lose out from replacing reduced VAT rates with targeted cash transfers, those that receive support are instead determined by income and family characteristics as opposed to consumption tastes – thereby increasing horizontal equity. Furthermore, many households are lifted out of poverty as revenue previously transferred to richer households is now transferred to poorer households.   These results empirically confirm the theoretical expectation that, where available, direct mechanisms (whether via the income tax or benefit system) will better achieve distributional goals than reduced VAT rates. Countries that currently employ reduced VAT rates to achieve distributional goals should therefore consider removing these reduced rates and adjusting their income tax or benefit systems to achieve these distributional goals instead. Countries should also consider removing reduced VAT rates aimed at non-distributional goals where a more effective instrument is available to achieve the particular policy goal. At a minimum, the merits of these reduced VAT rates should be reassessed in light of their negative distributional impact.</p>

scholarly journals The Effect of Gender-Targeted Conditional Cash Transfers on Household Expenditures: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (631) ◽  
pp. 1875-1897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Armand ◽  
Orazio Attanasio ◽  
Pedro Carneiro ◽  
Valérie Lechene
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Policy Intervention ◽  
Household Expenditures ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Food Expenditure ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Republic

Abstract This article studies the differential effect of targeting cash transfers to men or women on household expenditure on non-durables. We study a policy intervention in the Republic of North Macedonia that offers cash transfers to poor households, conditional on having their children attending secondary school. The recipient is randomised across municipalities, with payments targeted to either the mother or the father of the child. Targeting transfers to women increases the expenditure share on food by 4 to 5 percentage points. At low levels of food expenditure, there is a shift towards a more nutritious diet.

scholarly journals Conditional cash transfers to alleviate poverty also reduced deforestation in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. eaaz1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Ferraro ◽  
Rhita Simorangkir
Keyword(s):  
Program Implementation ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Poverty Program ◽  
Implementation Costs ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Primary Forests

Solutions to poverty and ecosystem degradation are often framed as conflicting. We ask whether Indonesia’s national anti-poverty program, which transfers cash to hundreds of thousands of poor households, reduced deforestation as a side benefit. Although the program has no direct link to conservation, we estimate that it reduced tree cover loss in villages by 30% (95% confidence interval, 10 to 50%). About half of the avoided losses were in primary forests, and reductions were larger when participation density was higher. The economic value of the avoided carbon emissions alone compares favorably to program implementation costs. The program’s environmental impact appears to be mediated through channels widely available in developing nations: consumption smoothing, whereby cash substitutes for deforestation as a form of insurance, and consumption substitution, whereby market-purchased goods substitute for deforestation-sourced goods. The results imply that anti-poverty programs targeted at the very poor can help achieve global environmental goals under certain conditions.

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