This paper explores the extent to which government-run cash transfer programs in four sub-Saharan countries affect food security and nutritional outcomes. These programs include Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, Kenya’s Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Lesotho’s Child Grants Program and Zambia’s Child Grant model of the Social Cash Transfer program. Our cross-country analysis highlights the importance of robust program design and implementation to achieve the intended results. We find that a relatively generous and regular and predictable transfer increases the quantity and quality of food and reduces the prevalence of food insecurity. On the other hand, a smaller, lumpy and irregular transfer does not lead to impacts on food expenditures. We complement binary treatment analysis with continuous treatment analysis to understand not only the impact of being in the program but also the variability in impacts by the extent of treatment.

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Although liquidity constraints have been seen as both a factor limiting individuals from migrating and a motivation for households to send a migrant, the consequences of relaxing liquidity constraints on migration behavior have not been adequately explored due to data limitations. In this study, we take advantage of an unusual policy, Bantuan Langsung Tunai — a national-level unconditional cash transfer program targeted toward the poorest households in Indonesia — to empirically assess the impact of increased liquidity on the migration behavior of poor Indonesian households. With a highly mobile population and a long history of circular migration, Indonesia is an ideal space to study migration. Using panel data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, the results demonstrate that a positive liquidity shock increases the probability of migration among low-asset households, among households with a migration history, and, most significantly, among low-asset households with a migration history.

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