Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?

The paper reviews the evidence on a "hot" and yet underexplored question -- that is, whether and how social assistance programs (especially cash transfers) affect domestic and international migration. Out an initial sample of 269 papers,...

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Main Authors: Adhikari, Samik, Gentilini, Ugo
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/609571531402897490/Should-I-stay-or-should-I-go-do-cash-transfers-affect-migration
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29998
id okr-10986-29998
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-299982021-06-08T14:42:46Z Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration? Adhikari, Samik Gentilini, Ugo CASH TRANSFERS MIGRATION LABOR MOBILITY SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL ASSISTANCE INTERNAL MIGRATION MOBILITY The paper reviews the evidence on a "hot" and yet underexplored question -- that is, whether and how social assistance programs (especially cash transfers) affect domestic and international migration. Out an initial sample of 269 papers, 10 relevant empirical studies examine the question. The programs are classified into three clusters: (i) social assistance that implicitly deters migration centering on place-based programs, (ii) social assistance that implicitly facilitates migration by relaxing liquidity constraints and reducing transaction costs, and (iii) social assistance that is explicitly conditioned on spatial mobility. The paper finds that impacts on migration generally align with the implicit or explicit goals of interventions. Under cluster (i), the likelihood of moving declined between 0.22 and 11 percentage points; among schemes in clusters (ii) and (iii), the probability to move soared between 0.32-25 and 20-55 percentage points, respectively. The analysis also finds spillover effects within households and communities. While social assistance seems not to determine migration decisions per se, it nonetheless enters the broader calculous of mobility decision making. As such, social protection can be an important part of public policy packages to manage mobility. More research is needed to improve understanding of the role of social protection in structural transformation -- a process underpinned by domestic mobility and the performance of which may ultimately affect international migration. 2018-07-16T14:44:34Z 2018-07-16T14:44:34Z 2018-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/609571531402897490/Should-I-stay-or-should-I-go-do-cash-transfers-affect-migration http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29998 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8525 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
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CASH TRANSFERS
MIGRATION
LABOR MOBILITY
SOCIAL PROTECTION
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
INTERNAL MIGRATION
MOBILITY
spellingShingle CASH TRANSFERS
MIGRATION
LABOR MOBILITY
SOCIAL PROTECTION
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
INTERNAL MIGRATION
MOBILITY
Adhikari, Samik
Gentilini, Ugo
Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8525
description The paper reviews the evidence on a "hot" and yet underexplored question -- that is, whether and how social assistance programs (especially cash transfers) affect domestic and international migration. Out an initial sample of 269 papers, 10 relevant empirical studies examine the question. The programs are classified into three clusters: (i) social assistance that implicitly deters migration centering on place-based programs, (ii) social assistance that implicitly facilitates migration by relaxing liquidity constraints and reducing transaction costs, and (iii) social assistance that is explicitly conditioned on spatial mobility. The paper finds that impacts on migration generally align with the implicit or explicit goals of interventions. Under cluster (i), the likelihood of moving declined between 0.22 and 11 percentage points; among schemes in clusters (ii) and (iii), the probability to move soared between 0.32-25 and 20-55 percentage points, respectively. The analysis also finds spillover effects within households and communities. While social assistance seems not to determine migration decisions per se, it nonetheless enters the broader calculous of mobility decision making. As such, social protection can be an important part of public policy packages to manage mobility. More research is needed to improve understanding of the role of social protection in structural transformation -- a process underpinned by domestic mobility and the performance of which may ultimately affect international migration.
format Working Paper
author Adhikari, Samik
Gentilini, Ugo
author_facet Adhikari, Samik
Gentilini, Ugo
author_sort Adhikari, Samik
title Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
title_short Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
title_full Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
title_fullStr Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
title_full_unstemmed Should I Stay or Should I Go : Do Cash Transfers Affect Migration?
title_sort should i stay or should i go : do cash transfers affect migration?
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/609571531402897490/Should-I-stay-or-should-I-go-do-cash-transfers-affect-migration
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29998
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