Does social assistance disincentivise employment, job formality, and mobility? Learning from past unconditional cash transfer programmes in Indonesia

How do cash transfers affect employment, formality, and mobility in developing countries, especially in times of crises and economic recovery? This paper examines this question in the context of Indonesia’s major unconditional cash transfer (UCT) programmes, rolled out in a targeted manner in response to adverse economic shocks. Identification is based on a range of difference-in-differences approaches exploiting three waves of nationally-representative longitudinal data on household transfer receipts and labour market outcomes.