Can unconditional in-kind transfers keep children out of work and in school? Evidence from Indonesia

Nadezhda Baryshnikova and Danusha Jayawardana ()

No 2019-01, School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers from University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy

Abstract: The International Labour Organisation estimates that 152 million children are engaging in child labour globally which creates a need for evidence based policies and interventions to eliminate it. Particularly, there is limited evidence about the effect of in-kind transfers on child labour, impeding policy development. We address this evidence gap by examining the impacts of an unconditional in-kind transfer, a subsidised rice program, on child labour as well as schooling, using household survey data from Indonesia. To identify the causal effect we employ coarsened exact matching with difference-in-differences estimator. The results indicate that the program is effective in increasing the probability of schooling for girls though it does not have a significant impact on the probability of working as a child. However, as an unconditional in-kind transfer, its ability to increase schooling for girls, especially of those who are not currently attending school, provides an important policy implication on how a food subsidy program can indirectly influence child wellbeing.

Keywords: Domestic Child labour; Schooling; Food subsidy; Raskin; Indonesia; Coarsened exact matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I38 J82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-sea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Can Unconditional In-Kind Transfers Keep Children Out of Work and in School? Evidence from Indonesia (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adl:wpaper:2019-01

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