Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh
Evidence on the effectiveness of workfare as an anti-poverty program in developing countries is weak compared with the relatively well-established role of public works during economic crisis as a social safety net. This paper contributes to evidenc...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/693021522689848382/Does-workfare-work-well-the-case-of-the-employment-generation-program-for-the-poorest-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29609 |
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okr-10986-296092021-06-08T14:42:45Z Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh Cho, Yoonyoung Ruthbah, Ummul SOCIAL ASSISTANCE WORKFARE PUBLIC WORKS POVERTY CONSUMPTION SOCIAL SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT JOB ASSISTANCE WAGE TRANSFER LABOR MARKET UNCONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS Evidence on the effectiveness of workfare as an anti-poverty program in developing countries is weak compared with the relatively well-established role of public works during economic crisis as a social safety net. This paper contributes to evidence building by examining the impact of a large-scale workfare program in Bangladesh, the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest. Taking advantage of the program's distinguishable feature of direct wage transfer to a person's bank account, the paper uses accessibility to local banks as an instrumental variable to identify the program's impacts on rural social assistance beneficiaries. Based on locality-by-time fixed effects models over two rounds of locality panel data, the analysis finds that the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest has contributed to increasing overall household consumption and reducing outstanding loans. In particular, expenditures on quality food and health care have significantly increased, which likely helps individuals continue to engage in income-generating activities in the labor market. However, the implementation costs and poor quality of public assets built through work projects could potentially undermine the program's efficiency. Moreover, further evidence is required on the impacts of work experience through workfare on subsequent labor market outcomes and the value of public assets, to assess the program's effectiveness compared with administratively simpler alternative instruments such as unconditional cash transfers. 2018-04-03T15:41:48Z 2018-04-03T15:41:48Z 2018-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/693021522689848382/Does-workfare-work-well-the-case-of-the-employment-generation-program-for-the-poorest-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29609 English Policy Research Working Paper;No.8395 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Bangladesh |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE WORKFARE PUBLIC WORKS POVERTY CONSUMPTION SOCIAL SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT JOB ASSISTANCE WAGE TRANSFER LABOR MARKET UNCONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS |
| spellingShingle |
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE WORKFARE PUBLIC WORKS POVERTY CONSUMPTION SOCIAL SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT JOB ASSISTANCE WAGE TRANSFER LABOR MARKET UNCONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS Cho, Yoonyoung Ruthbah, Ummul Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Bangladesh |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No.8395 |
| description |
Evidence on the effectiveness of
workfare as an anti-poverty program in developing countries
is weak compared with the relatively well-established role
of public works during economic crisis as a social safety
net. This paper contributes to evidence building by
examining the impact of a large-scale workfare program in
Bangladesh, the Employment Generation Program for the
Poorest. Taking advantage of the program's
distinguishable feature of direct wage transfer to a
person's bank account, the paper uses accessibility to
local banks as an instrumental variable to identify the
program's impacts on rural social assistance
beneficiaries. Based on locality-by-time fixed effects
models over two rounds of locality panel data, the analysis
finds that the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest
has contributed to increasing overall household consumption
and reducing outstanding loans. In particular, expenditures
on quality food and health care have significantly
increased, which likely helps individuals continue to engage
in income-generating activities in the labor market.
However, the implementation costs and poor quality of public
assets built through work projects could potentially
undermine the program's efficiency. Moreover, further
evidence is required on the impacts of work experience
through workfare on subsequent labor market outcomes and the
value of public assets, to assess the program's
effectiveness compared with administratively simpler
alternative instruments such as unconditional cash transfers. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Cho, Yoonyoung Ruthbah, Ummul |
| author_facet |
Cho, Yoonyoung Ruthbah, Ummul |
| author_sort |
Cho, Yoonyoung |
| title |
Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| title_short |
Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| title_full |
Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| title_fullStr |
Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Does Workfare Work Well? : The Case of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh |
| title_sort |
does workfare work well? : the case of the employment generation program for the poorest in bangladesh |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/693021522689848382/Does-workfare-work-well-the-case-of-the-employment-generation-program-for-the-poorest-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29609 |
| _version_ |
1764469802069393408 |