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How Cash Transfers Boost Work and Economic Security

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  • Guy Standing

Abstract

There has long been a minority view that providing people with cash is an effective way of combating poverty and economic insecurity while promoting livelihoods and work. The mainstream view has been that giving people money, without conditions or obligations, promotes idleness and dependency, while being unnecessarily costly. Better, they contend, would be to allocate the available money to schemes that create jobs and/or human capital and that produce infrastructure. This paper reviews recent evidence on various types of scheme and on several pilot cash transfer schemes, assessing them by reference to principles of social justice.

Suggested Citation

  • Guy Standing, 2007. "How Cash Transfers Boost Work and Economic Security," Working Papers 58, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    • Handle: RePEc:une:wpaper:58
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    File URL: http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2007/wp58_2007.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. LoVuolo Rubén, 2012. "Prospects and Challenges for the Basic Income Proposal in Latin America," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Julia Ngozi Chukwuma, 2023. "Implementing Health Policy in Nigeria: The Basic Health Care Provision Fund as a Catalyst for Achieving Universal Health Coverage?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(6), pages 1480-1503, November.
    3. Sophia Seung-Yoon Lee & Ji-eun Lee & Kyo-seong Kim, 2020. "Evaluating Basic Income, Basic Service, and Basic Voucher for Social and Ecological Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Cecilia Rossel & Denise Courtoisie & Magdalena Marsiglia, 2019. "How could conditional cash transfer programme conditionalities reinforce vulnerability? Non‐compliers and policy implementation gaps in Uruguay's Family Allowances," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(1), pages 3-18, January.
    5. Rolph van der Hoeven, 2010. "Labour Markets Trends, Financial Globalization and the current crisis in Developing Countries," Working Papers 99, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    6. Marjit Sugata & Mandal Biswajit & Chatterjee Tonmoy, 2017. "Infrastructure Development Versus Direct Cash Transfer: A General Equilibrium Comparison," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 68(1), pages 63-74, April.
    7. Rodríguez, Luis C. & Pascual, Unai & Muradian, Roldan & Pazmino, Nathalie & Whitten, Stuart, 2011. "Towards a unified scheme for environmental and social protection: Learning from PES and CCT experiences in developing countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2163-2174, September.
    8. Stephen Devereux & Edoardo Masset & Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & Michael Samson & Althea-Maria Rivas & Dolf te Lintelo, 2017. "The targeting effectiveness of social transfers," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 162-211, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food aid; vouchers; cash transfers; economic security; public works; social pensions; disability grants; social policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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