Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security

Labor-intensive public works programs are important social protection tools in low-income settings, intended to supplement the income of poor households and improve public infrastructure. In this evaluation of the Malawi Social Action Fund, an at-scale, government-operated program, across- and withi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Beegle, Kathleen, Galasso, Emanuela, Goldberg, Jessica
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Elsevier 2018
Subjects:	PUBLIC WORKS FOOD SECURITY SOCIAL PROTECTION LABOR POLICY POVERTY REDUCTION JOB CREATION PUBLIC SPENDING INFRASTRUCTURE FERTILIZER SEASONAL WORK
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29302

id	okr-10986-29302
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-293022021-05-25T10:54:43Z Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security Beegle, Kathleen Galasso, Emanuela Goldberg, Jessica PUBLIC WORKS FOOD SECURITY SOCIAL PROTECTION LABOR POLICY POVERTY REDUCTION JOB CREATION PUBLIC SPENDING INFRASTRUCTURE FERTILIZER SEASONAL WORK Labor-intensive public works programs are important social protection tools in low-income settings, intended to supplement the income of poor households and improve public infrastructure. In this evaluation of the Malawi Social Action Fund, an at-scale, government-operated program, across- and within-village randomization is used to estimate effects on food security and use of fertilizer. There is no evidence that the program improves food security and suggestive evidence of negative spillovers to untreated households. These disappointing results hold even under modifications to the design of the program to offer work during the lean rather than harvest season or increase the frequency of payments. These findings stand in contrast to those from large public works programs in India and Ethiopia, and serves as a reminder that public works programs will not always have significant and measurable welfare effects. 2018-02-01T21:20:51Z 2018-02-01T21:20:51Z 2017-09 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics 0304-3878 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29302 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Ethiopia India Malawi
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	PUBLIC WORKS FOOD SECURITY SOCIAL PROTECTION LABOR POLICY POVERTY REDUCTION JOB CREATION PUBLIC SPENDING INFRASTRUCTURE FERTILIZER SEASONAL WORK
spellingShingle	PUBLIC WORKS FOOD SECURITY SOCIAL PROTECTION LABOR POLICY POVERTY REDUCTION JOB CREATION PUBLIC SPENDING INFRASTRUCTURE FERTILIZER SEASONAL WORK Beegle, Kathleen Galasso, Emanuela Goldberg, Jessica Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
geographic_facet	Africa Ethiopia India Malawi
description	Labor-intensive public works programs are important social protection tools in low-income settings, intended to supplement the income of poor households and improve public infrastructure. In this evaluation of the Malawi Social Action Fund, an at-scale, government-operated program, across- and within-village randomization is used to estimate effects on food security and use of fertilizer. There is no evidence that the program improves food security and suggestive evidence of negative spillovers to untreated households. These disappointing results hold even under modifications to the design of the program to offer work during the lean rather than harvest season or increase the frequency of payments. These findings stand in contrast to those from large public works programs in India and Ethiopia, and serves as a reminder that public works programs will not always have significant and measurable welfare effects.
format	Journal Article
author	Beegle, Kathleen Galasso, Emanuela Goldberg, Jessica
author_facet	Beegle, Kathleen Galasso, Emanuela Goldberg, Jessica
author_sort	Beegle, Kathleen
title	Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
title_short	Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
title_full	Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
title_fullStr	Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
title_full_unstemmed	Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security
title_sort	direct and indirect effects of malawi's public works program on food security
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29302
_version_	1764469005789167616

Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security

Similar Items