How Does Public Assistance Affect Children in Disadvantaged Families? Evidence from Türkiye’s Family Support Program

Aysun Hiziroglu Aygun

EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: We examine the short-term effects of Türkiye’s Family Support Program (FSP), a large-scale unconditional cash transfer (UCT) introduced in 2022 amid 85.5% annual inflation. The program complements food and shelter support and offers approximately one-third of the monthly minimum wage to low-income families. Using a regression discontinuity design based on the program's per capita income eligibility threshold, we analyze the program's short-term effects on child labor, time use, health, and emotional well-being within six months of implementation. We find significant reductions in children's participation in family businesses and agricultural work. Investigating the heterogeneous effects, we find that the program reduces non-market outside work for boys and time spent on domestic work for girls. Emotional well-being improved, especially among boys. These findings suggest that UCTs can improve child welfare during macroeconomic crises when combined with in-kind transfers.

Keywords: cash transfers; in-kind support; child labor; regression discontinuity design; program evaluation; Türkiye (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I28 I38 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lma
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:esprep:324156

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