Should I Stay or Should I Go

Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration

Bibliographic Data

ID19908142
AuthorsSamik Adhikari (0009-0008-3218-6766), Ugo Gentilini
Year2018
Publication date2018-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
PublisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1596/1813-9450-8525
OpenAlexW2884783518
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited15

The paper reviews the evidence on a \n "hot" and yet underexplored question -- that is, \n whether and how social assistance programs (especially cash \n transfers) affect domestic and international migration. Out \n an initial sample of 269 papers, 10 relevant empirical \n studies examine the question. The programs are classified \n into three clusters: (i) social assistance that implicitly \n deters migration centering on place-based programs, (ii) \n social assistance that implicitly facilitates migration by \n relaxing liquidity constraints and reducing transaction \n costs, and (iii) social assistance that is explicitly \n conditioned on spatial mobility. The paper finds that \n impacts on migration generally align with the implicit or \n explicit goals of interventions. Under cluster (i), the \n likelihood of moving declined between 0.22 and 11 percentage \n points; among schemes in clusters (ii) and (iii), the \n probability to move soared between 0.32-25 and 20-55 \n percentage points, respectively. The analysis also finds \n spillover effects within households and communities. While \n social assistance seems not to determine migration decisions \n per se, it nonetheless enters the broader calculous of \n mobility decision making. As such, social protection can be \n an important part of public policy packages to manage \n mobility. More research is needed to improve understanding \n of the role of social protection in structural \n transformation -- a process underpinned by domestic mobility \n and the performance of which may ultimately affect \n international migration

Affect (linguistics) · Business · Cash · Cash transfers · Demographic economics · Economics · Communication · Finance · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology

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