Cash Transfers to the Poor and the Labor Market
Title | Cash Transfers to the Poor and the Labor Market PDF eBook |
Author | Tiago Cavalcanti |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
This paper studies the effects of cash transfers to the poor on the labor market. This is investigated in a matching model with endogenous labor market participation and job destruction. Depending on their productivity, workers might want to stay in the job, become unemployed, or leave the labor market; in addition, workers out of the labor force might decide to search for a job. Cash transfers are introduced to all agents with income below a given level. Two qualitative results are found: (i) The size of cash transfers has a negative effect on the employment rate, but an ambiguous effect on the unemployment rate; and (ii) the coverage of this welfare program has a positive effect on the employment rate, and an ambiguous effect on the unemployment rate. The numerical simulations also show that: (i) if the government target is to reduce inequality and poverty, the more efficient policy is to increase the level of benefits instead of increasing the eligibility of the program; (ii) compared with a welfare program that condition eligibility to labor market participation, the “unconditional” cash transfer program has a stronger impact on inequality and poverty, but with a reduction in labor market participation and output.
The World Bank Research Observer
Title | The World Bank Research Observer PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 300 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | Computer network resources |
ISBN |
Conditional Cash Transfers
Title | Conditional Cash Transfers PDF eBook |
Author | Ariel Fiszbein |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Pages | 384 |
Release | 2009-02-09 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0821373536 |
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs aim to reduce poverty by making welfare programs conditional upon the receivers' actions. That is, the government only transfers the money to persons who meet certain criteria. These criteria may include enrolling children into public schools, getting regular check-ups at the doctor's office, receiving vaccinations, or the like. They have been hailed as a way of reducing inequality and helping households break out of a vicious cycle whereby poverty is transmitted from one generation to another. Do these and other claims make sense? Are they supported by the available empirical evidence? This volume seeks to answer these and other related questions. Specifically, it lays out a conceptual framework for thinking about the economic rationale for CCTs; it reviews the very rich evidence that has accumulated on CCTs; it discusses how the conceptual framework and the evidence on impacts should inform the design of CCT programs in practice; and it discusses how CCTs fit in the context of broader social policies. The authors show that there is considerable evidence that CCTs have improved the lives of poor people and argue that conditional cash transfers have been an effective way of redistributing income to the poor. They also recognize that even the best-designed and managed CCT cannot fulfill all of the needs of a comprehensive social protection system. They therefore need to be complemented with other interventions, such as workfare or employment programs, and social pensions.
Conditional Cash Transfers, Adult Work Incentives, and Poverty
Title | Conditional Cash Transfers, Adult Work Incentives, and Poverty PDF eBook |
Author | Emmanuel Skoufias |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Pages | 38 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | Incentives in industry |
ISBN |
"Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs aim to alleviate poverty through monetary and in-kind benefits, as well as reduce future levels of poverty by encouraging investments in education, health, and nutrition. The success of CCT programs at reducing poverty depends on whether, and the extent to which, cash transfers affect adult work incentives. The authors examine whether the PROGRESA program of Mexico affects adult participation in the labor market and overall adult leisure time, and they link these effects to the impact of the program on poverty. Using the experimental design of PROGRESA's evaluation sample, the authors find that the program does not have any significant effect on adult labor force participation and leisure time. Their findings on adult work incentives are reinforced further by the result that PROGRESA leads to a substantial reduction in poverty. The poverty reduction effects are stronger for the poverty gap and severity of poverty measures."--World Bank web site.
The Cash Dividend
Title | The Cash Dividend PDF eBook |
Author | Marito Garcia |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Pages | 441 |
Release | 2012-02-21 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0821388983 |
This book provides in-depth descriptions and analysis of how cash transfer programs have evolved and been used in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. The analysis focuses on program features and implementation, but it also highlights political economy issues and current knowledge gaps.
Minding the Gap
Title | Minding the Gap PDF eBook |
Author | M. Situmorang |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
From Right to Reality
Title | From Right to Reality PDF eBook |
Author | Helena Ribe |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Pages | 455 |
Release | 2012-03-13 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0821389068 |
This study highlights the interaction between social protection (SP) programs and labor markets in the Latin America region. It presents new evidence on the limited coverage of existing programs and emphasizes the challenges caused by high informality for achieving universal social protection for old age income, health, unemployment risks and anti-poverty safety nets. It identifies interaction effects between SP programs and the behavioral responses of workers, firms and social protection providers, which can further undermine efforts to expand coverage, summarizing evidence from recent work across the region. The book argues for a re-design of financing to eliminate cross subsidies between members of contributory programs and subsidies that effectively tax income from formal employment. It advocates well-targeted, tax-funded, tapered subsidies to provide incentives to the savings efforts of low-income workers, coupled with an effective safety net for the extreme poor who have no capacity to contribute to financing their own social protection arrangements. It also argues for the consolidation of programs and harmonization of benefits packages across different insurers. The book develops an overall conceptual framework and presents in-depth analysis of the main SP sectors of pensions, health, unemployment insurance and labor market programs, and safety net transfers.