IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/harjfk/15-076.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs Worldwide

Author

Listed:
  • Banerjee, Abhijit

    (MIT)

  • Hanna, Rema

    (Harvard University)

  • Kreindler, Gabriel

    (MIT)

  • Olken, Benjamin A.

    (MIT)

Abstract

Targeted transfer programs for poor citizens have become increasingly common in the developing world. Yet, a common concern among policy makers - both in developing as well as developed countries - is that such programs tend to discourage work. We re-analyze the data from 7 randomized controlled trials of government-run cash transfer programs in six developing countries throughout the world, and find no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work.

Suggested Citation

  • Banerjee, Abhijit & Hanna, Rema & Kreindler, Gabriel & Olken, Benjamin A., 2015. "Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs Worldwide," Working Paper Series 15-076, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:15-076
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=1290
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs Worldwide
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2016-10-06 00:01:23

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Franziska Gassmann & Lorena Zardo Trindade, 2019. "Effect of Means-Tested Social Transfers on Labor Supply: Heads Versus Spouses—An Empirical Analysis of Work Disincentives in the Kyrgyz Republic," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(2), pages 189-214, April.
    2. Palacios, Alfredo, 2016. "Impacto de los Programas de Transferencias de Ingresos en la Calidad de la Vivienda Familiar: Evidencia para el Plan de Inclusión Social, Argentina [Impact of Cash Transfer Programs on the Quality ," MPRA Paper 102482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Sudhanshu Handa & Silvio Daidone & Amber Peterman & Benjamin Davis & Audrey Pereira & Tia Palermo & Jennifer Yablonski, 2018. "Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 33(2), pages 259-298.
    4. Brudevold-Newman,Andrew Peter & Honorati,Maddalena & Jakiela,Pamela & Ozier,Owen & Brudevold-Newman,Andrew Peter & Honorati,Maddalena & Jakiela,Pamela & Ozier,Owen, 2017. "A firm of one's own : experimental evidence on credit constraints and occupational choice," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7977, The World Bank.
    5. Damon Jones & Ioana Marinescu, 2022. "The Labor Market Impacts of Universal and Permanent Cash Transfers: Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 315-340, May.
    6. Kanbur, Ravi, 2017. "The Digital Revolution and Targeting Public Expenditure for Poverty Reduction," CEPR Discussion Papers 12089, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Margherita Calderone, 2017. "Are there different spillover effects from cash transfers to men and women? Impacts on investments in education in post-war Uganda," WIDER Working Paper Series 093, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. M. Caridad Araujo & Mariano Bosch & Norbert Schady, 2017. "Can Cash Transfers Help Households Escape an Inter-Generational Poverty Trap?," NBER Chapters,in: The Economics of Asset Accumulation and Poverty Traps National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Bergolo, M. & Cruces, G., 2021. "The anatomy of behavioral responses to social assistance when informal employment is high," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    10. Morel Berendson, Ricardo & Girón, Liz, 2022. "The multidimensional impacts of the Conditional Cash Transfer program Juntos in Peru," MERIT Working Papers 2022-012, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Joan Vilá, 2019. "Respuestas en los ingresos frente a un programa de transferencias monetarias: evidencia de un notch a partir de registros administrativos de Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 19-07, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    12. Margherita Calderone, 2017. "Are there different spillover effects from cash transfers to men and women?: Impacts on investments in education in post-war Uganda," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-93, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & Narayan Das & Selim Gulesci & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman, 2017. "Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(2), pages 811-870.
    14. Ioana Marinescu, 2018. "No Strings Attached: The Behavioral Effects of U.S. Unconditional Cash Transfer Programs," NBER Working Papers 24337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. M. Caridad Araujo & Mariano Bosch & Norbert Schady, 2017. "Can Cash Transfers Help Households Escape an Intergenerational Poverty Trap?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 357-382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gilbert Richard & Murphy Nora A. & Stepka Allison & Barrett Mark & Worku Dianne, 2018. "Would a Basic Income Guarantee Reduce the Motivation to Work? An Analysis of Labor Responses in 16 Trial Programs," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Le, Nga T.Q. & Groot, Wim & Tomini, Sonila & Tomini, Florian, 2017. "Effects of health insurance on labour supply: Evidence from the health care fund for the poor in Viet Nam," MERIT Working Papers 2017-050, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Stefano Staffolani, 2023. "Deprivazione, povert? e redistribuzione del reddito," PRISMA Economia - Societ? - Lavoro, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2023(1-2), pages 47-69.
    19. Santiago Garganta & Leonardo Gasparini & Mariana Marchionni, 2017. "Cash transfers and female labor force participation: the case of AUH in Argentina," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:15-076. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ksharus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.