Social Assistance Programs Research Articles

Technology-Enabled Agent Choice and Uptake of Social Assistance Programs: Evidence from India’s Food Security Program

Problem definition: Beneficiaries of social assistance programs with transfers of undifferentiated commodities often have a designated agent to collect their entitlements from. This gives monopoly power to agents over beneficiaries. When coupled with weak government monitoring, agents do not have incentives to adhere to stipulated operating guidelines, leading to reduced uptake by beneficiaries. Some governments are attempting to break the monopoly by allowing beneficiaries to choose agents. However, the impact of choice on uptake may be limited by lack of alternate agents in beneficiaries’ vicinities, restricted ability of agents to compete with undifferentiated commodities, and collusion among agents. Methodology/results: Using a reverse difference-in-differences framework on data from a food security program in two neighboring states in India, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, we find that providing agent choice results in a 6.6% increase in the quantity of entitlements collected by the beneficiary households. We also find that increase in uptake is about four times higher in regions with high agent density compared with those with low agent density. This emphasizes the importance of having an alternate agent in the vicinity for choice to be effective. Nearly all of the increase in uptake is attributable to new beneficiaries collecting entitlements from their preassigned agent. This is suggestive of agents improving adherence to operating guidelines in response to choice. We find associative evidence for this response in the number of days agents keep their shops open. Managerial implications: Governments executing in-kind transfers of undifferentiated commodities are piloting interventions to provide choice to their beneficiaries. Replacement of in-kind transfers with cash, an increasingly popular intervention, may be challenging in volatile markets, as the magnitude of the transfer needs to be periodically adjusted. Our results indicate that alternate designs of providing choice even in a limited form, that is, the place where the beneficiaries can collect their entitlements with products and prices fixed, can present a viable alternative. Funding: This research was partially supported by a grant from the Omidyar Network to the Digital Identity Research Initiative at the Indian School of Business. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0528 .

The Influence of Family-Based Social Assistance Programs and Parenting on Child Development: A Conceptual Framework for Research with U.S. Families in Poverty.

Nearly three decades since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, federal cash assistance to families in poverty in the United States has entered political discourse once more with the Biden Administration's introduction of the American Families Plan. At the heart of this discussion are theories of change that derive from the family and developmental sciences. As a result, scientists in these fields have a duty to understand the history of the last reform and the consequences it has since had for children in poverty. In this paper, I review the history of perspectives toward government social assistance programs, as well as extant research demonstrating the mechanisms through which maternal employment and federal cash assistance impact child wellbeing. Lastly, I propose a conceptual framework for understanding the influence of family-based social assistance programs and parenting on child wellbeing to guide future research.

The Effect of E-Warong Accessibility on Household Consumption

BPNT/Sembako is a social assistance program provided by the government to improve the welfare of people experiencing poverty by providing food with balanced nutrition and providing choice and control over food. BPNT/Sembako uses e-wrong as the only distribution. Households must come to e-wrong with a KKS. Because e-wrong is the only place for distribution, e-wrong is very important, including the distance of the e-wrong from the location of the beneficiary. However, e-wrong still has a limited distribution. The purpose of this study is to generally investigate the effectiveness of the e-wrong program and specifically investigate the effect of e-wrong accessibility on household consumption, especially rice consumption, taking into account aspects of price and quality of rice, characteristics of other consumer goods, household characteristics, residential area characteristics, local government assistance, and consumption motivation. This study uses 4-month panel data (November 2019-February 2020) of BPNT/Sembako recipients in the March 2020 Susenas and the random effects (RE) approach. The results of the study show that the accessibility of e-warong has a significant effect on household consumption (rice consumption). The farther the e-warong is, the higher the consumption of rice.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Social Assistance Programs to Alleviating Poverty in Indonesia

Poverty in Indonesia is a fundamental problem that needs special attention. The government is trying to alleviate poverty by introducting various programs to people who are below the poverty line. One of these programs is the Social Assistance Program. This research aims to determine the extent of the impact of social assistance programs on poverty reduction in Indonesia. The method used is a quantitative method with analytical tools, namely R, to carry out regression analysis on the data. The data used include (1) data on poverty levels in Indonesia, (2) demographic data on the Indonesian population, (3) data on social assistance programs organized by the government or other institutions, (4) data on household or individual income, and (5) data related to the socio-economic conditions of social assistance recipients. The research results show that social assistance programs influence poverty reduction. Influence can be increased by (1) providing clear regulations and rules in implementing aid, (2) cross-checking target recipients of aid, and (3) carrying out regular monitoring and evaluation of aid program implementation.
 Keywords: policy evaluation, social assistance program, poverty, Indonesia

Policy Capacity Within the Local Anticorruption Political Agenda (A Study of Corruption Prevention in the Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery Program in Malang City)

This research aims to assess the local government’s capacity to develop anti-corruption policies for social assistance programs (Bansos) and post-Covid-19 economic recovery. The study examines deeply the effectiveness of the policy framework in combatting corruption at the local level. The research findings are intended to form the keystone for crafting regional anti-corruption policy strategies, particularly focusing on preventing corruption in social assistance funds during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research location chosen is the Government of Malang City, given the occurrence of widespread corruption within the local government in 2018 (https://antikorupsi.org/id/article/korupsimassal- wakil-rakyat-daerah). Have there been systematic efforts to enhance corruption prevention? This research was conducted between 2021 and 2022 during the economic recovery period following the Covid-19 pandemic, utilizing document analysis, mass media reports, and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). Employing content analysis and qualitative methods, this study highlights the necessity for innovative approaches to strengthen corruption prevention and eradication policy capabilities. While there is a commitment from local governments, concrete programs and action plans are still needed. Moreover, stricter mechanisms and enhanced oversights are essential to bolster corruption prevention.
 Keywords: corruption prevention, local government policy, policy capacity, economic recovery

Poverty Eradication Efforts in Iraq and Its Challenges in the Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Introduction: Iraq faces high levels of poverty, exacerbated by conflict and political crisis. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) offer a framework for overcoming poverty. This research aims to explore efforts to eradicate poverty in Iraq and its challenges from an SDGs perspective.
 Methods: This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews with 15 key informants from the government, non-governmental organizations, and academics in Iraq. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
 Results: This research found that Iraq has made several efforts to alleviate poverty, including social assistance programs, investment in education and health, and economic reform. However, these efforts face various challenges, such as corruption, weak infrastructure, and political instability.
 Conclusion: Iraq still has a long way to go to achieve the SDGs regarding poverty alleviation. More targeted and sustainable efforts are needed to overcome existing challenges.

THE EFFECT OF FOOD PRICE VOLATILITY (FPV) ON INFLATION IN PAREPARE CITY

Food price volatility often occurs and cannot be avoided, including food price volatility that occurs in Parepare City. The effect of movement or changes in food prices appears to influence inflation, which in turn becomes the purpose of this study, namely to analyze the effect of changes in food prices on inflation in Parepare City. The analysis method used is multiple linear regression analysis. The data used is secondary data in the form of monthly time series from July 2018 to June 2021. The independent variables in this study are the food prices of rice, chicken meat, red chili, chicken eggs and granulated sugar. The results showed that the food prices of rice and chicken eggs have an increasing trend while the prices of chicken meat, red chili, and granulated sugar tend to decrease. The coefficient of determination test results shows that changes in food prices simultaneously positively and significantly affect inflation. The t-statistical test shows that partially changes in food prices of rice and chicken meat have a positive and significant effect on inflation while changes in food prices of red chili, chicken eggs and granulated sugar have a positive but insignificant effect on inflation. This research has implications for public policy to develop food prices stabilization policies, such as food reserve policies, market regulations, incentives for food producers, or social assistance programs to alleviate the impact of food inflation.

Strategi Perempuan Kepala Keluarga Dalam Menghadapi Tantangan Ekonomi Di Kelurahan Kukusan Kota Depok

A female head of household is a woman who has full responsibility in assuming the role of family leader, which means being the backbone of the family to support her family. In addition to bearing the economic burden for the family, women family heads also carry the domestic burden as housekeepers and child caregivers. Therefore, this study will describe the strategies applied by female heads of households in Kukusan, Depok City in facing economic challenges. Economic challenges include women's poverty, women's discrimination, and women's double burden. Through descriptive qualitative research methods, it can be concluded that women family heads in Kukusan, apply three strategies to face economic challenges, these strategies are in the form of a network strategy, which is a form of utilizing social assistance programs and informal relationships with the surrounding environment to activate their respective jobs. The second strategy is an active strategy that can be more optimal if the family has a higher initiative to optimize the potential of themselves and their families in earning a living. And the third strategy is a passive strategy, namely a preventive strategy to manage finances with a priority scale at certain times has been implemented as well as possible.

Assessing the Level of Poverty and Utilization of Government Social Programs Among Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.

Studies examining profit suggest that former tobacco farmers do as well or better than current tobacco farmers. Research has yet to examine the relationship among current and former tobacco farmers, poverty, and receipt of government social assistance. This type of research is critical to understanding the direct and indirect subsidization of tobacco growing. This study analyzed tobacco farmers' poverty levels and receipt of government social assistance programs. We designed and conducted an original four-wave economic survey of current and former tobacco farming households in Indonesia between 2016 and 2022. We then used descriptive analysis and probit regression for panel data to estimate the relationship between tobacco farming and poverty status. Tobacco farmers' per capita income and poverty rates vary across years. The poverty rate was significantly higher in the year with a higher-than-normal rainfall as it negatively affected farming outcomes. During this year, the poverty rate among current tobacco farmers was also higher than that of former tobacco farmers. Regression estimates from the panel data confirm the association between tobacco farming and the likelihood of being poor. We also found a high share of current tobacco farmers who receive government social assistance programs, such as cash transfer programs and a universal healthcare program. Our findings show high poverty rates-particularly during bad farming years-and high rates of government social assistance among tobacco farmers. The high rates of government assistance among tobacco farmers living in poverty show that the government is indirectly subsidizing the tobacco industry.

Analyzing the impact of fintech industry and green financing on energy poverty in the European countries

In the fourth industrial revolution, the fintech has significantly expanded during the last several years, and this has caused scholars to worry about how much electricity is being used. Because energy poverty is one of the most critical social policy concerns facing the majority of nations in the world in the modern era. This study adds to what has already been written by looking at how the fintech industry affects the environment and energy in European countries. The current study investigates how the growing awareness of the need to preserve energy and the environment has an effect on society, and analyzes the role of the fintech industry, green finance, energy efficiency, and research and development on energy poverty across European nations from 2013 to 2020. To estimate long- and short-term impacts, DOLS and FMOLS are used along with diagnostic tests. The outcomes found that there is a tight relationship between energy poverty and all the factors taken into consideration (fintech, green finance, energy efficiency, and R&D). EU governments should employ “green finance" to encourage and enable the fintech industry since fintech plays a vital role in enhancing environmental effectiveness. The financing of environmentally friendly projects is very beneficial and might help alleviate energy poverty. The findings also indicate that more financing, ecological subsidies, and social assistance programs are necessary in order to satisfy the needs for energy and put an end to energy poverty in Europe. Policymakers in the tech world may be especially interested in the results.

ANALYSIS OF HEALTH EDUCATION FAMILY DEVELOPMENT SESSION WITH STUNTING IN PANGKAJENE AND ISLANDS REGENCY, INDONESIA: CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Stunting is a growth disorder experienced by young people whose length or height is not appropriate to their age according to the standards set by the WHO. UNICEF data for 2018 showed that almost 3 out of 10 young children have stunts or are too short for their age. Pangkajene and the Islands Regency showed a stunting prevalence of 29.10% or the highest in South Sulawesi Province in 2018. The Hope Family Program (PKH) is a conditional social assistance program that aims to improve the standard of living of KPM through access to education, health and welfare services as well as reducing the burden of expenditure and increasing the income of poor and vulnerable families. Purpose: To find out the relationship between Family Development Session health education and stunting incidents in Family Hope Program recipients in Pangkajene and the Islands regency. Methods: This study used an observational research approach with a crosectional model. The data was collected using a questionnaire with Family Development Session variables, food management pattern and BBLR history. The data collected was then analyzed using chi-square analysis. Results: Out of 71 respondents who came from recipients of the Hope Family Program, 36 children (51%) suffered stunting and 35 children (49%) did not. Conclusion: There is a significant link between health education Family Development Session, food management pattern and LBW history with stunting incidents in Pangkajene and the Islands Regency (p < 0.05).

Opportunities and Challenges for "Karang Taruna" as a Human Service Organization to Strengthening KUBE's Management

Karang Taruna is a voluntary youth organization that focuses on the growth and development of social welfare businesses, productive economic businesses, recreation, sports and the arts. One of the important goal is to develop the spirit of social entrepreneurship in the younger generation towards independence in their efforts improving social welfare, however, this goal has not been achieved yet, Karang Taruna requires a strategy. This study used qualitative research methods to find out: 1) How is the management of the youth organization; 2) What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; 3) What is the strategy for their developing and implementing youth activities. The research finding showed that it is necessary to implement a strategy to improve KUBE management as a matrix result of weakness and opportunity factors. The weakness of Karang Taruna is that the purpose of developing entrepreneurial activities has not been achieved yet, and the other side there is an opportunity to develop entrepreneurship through Business Group (KUBE) management intervention to improve its performance. KUBE is a kind of social assistance program for underprivileged people by forming micro mini enterprises so that they can become economically empowered.

Alternative targeting methods for social assistance programs: Evidence from Tunisia

AbstractSocial assistance programmes are crucial in alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and addressing social exclusion. The efficacy of these programmes hinges on the precision and efficiency of their targeting methods. Governments, especially in developing countries, can enhance the impact of social assistance programmes and ensure equitable resource distribution by accurately identifying the right individuals or households. This paper proposes two approaches to targeting beneficiaries of social benefits in Tunisia, including cash transfers and healthcare programmes. The first approach, a Mixed Means Test, extends the Proxy Means Test model by integrating individual/household assessments with explicit geographical targeting methods. The second is a multidimensional targeting strategy that explicitly considers the various deprivations faced by the households. Utilising data from the 2015 National Survey on Household Budget, Consumption, and Standard of Living, our results indicate that the targeting performance of the Mixed Means Test surpasses existing programmes both nationally and regionally, notably minimising inclusion and exclusion errors in the poorest regions of Tunisia. However, the multidimensional targeting approach identifies a higher number of potential beneficiaries compared to the current selection process in Tunisia. Including these households in social programmes may be hindered by limited monetary resources and the country's financial constraints. To address this, the multidimensional targeting approach enables the categorisation of potential beneficiaries into three mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive groups based on their degree of deprivation.

PERBANDINGAN KINERJA METODE KLASIFIKASI K-NEAREST NEIGHBOR DAN SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINES PADA DATASET PARKINSON

The government program in the form of social assistance (bansos) is part of the effort to improve the welfare of the community and ensure basic needs and improve the standard of living of the recipients. However, there are often cases of mistargeting of social assistance programs by the government. Improper data management and Data Terpadu Kesejahteraan Sosial (DTKS) which are not used as the cause of the distribution of social assistance are not well targeted. The data can be analyzed using the classification method to determine whether or not the family accepts the ban from the government. This study classifies the SUSENAS data by comparing K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The advantage of the KNN method lies in the level of accuracy to solve problems with large data while the SVM method has better performance in various fields of application such as bioinformacs, handwriting recognition, text classification and so on. Based on training data and testing data comparison 85%:15% showed that KNN method had a better classification performance than the SVM method. The accuracy value of KNN method is 80,95% higher than the accuracy value of SVM method is 78,79%.

Market Intervention Policy in The Case of Rising Rice Prices in Indonesia From The Perspective of Ibn Taimiyah

Rice is an important commodity and is needed by the wider community, its existence is vital as a means to fulfil the needs of life, therefore the Indonesian government's intervention in this commodity is very high. The price of rice in Indonesia continues to rise for many factors. This research employs qualitative methods which is called library research. The result of this study is the increase in rice prices in Indonesia according to Ibn Taymiyyah is entirely caused by market forces. According to Ibn Taymiyyah what is needed therefore is market intervention, instead of price intervention. The market intervention carried out by the Indonesian government is by intensifying the social assistance program, running market operations with the SPHP program, and strengthening the stock of government rice reserves (CBP). Meanwhile, the policy of setting the price ceiling should not be carried out by the government because the market conditions related to this rice commodity run perfectly and there is no market distortion.

Analisis pengelolaan bantuan langsung tunai di Desa Sendangan dan Desa Talikuran Kecamatan Tompaso

Direct Cash Assistance is a social assistance program provided by the government in the form of cash assistance or other assistance to people in need. The research objective in this study is to analyze the management of Direct Cash Assistance in Sendangan Village and Talikuran Village Based on Minister of Finance Regulation Number 201 of 2022. This research uses qualitative research with a descriptive approach. This research shows that the Government of Sendangan and Talikuran Village can be said to be in accordance with governance regulated in Minister of Finance Regulation Number 201 concerning Direct Cash Assistance, starting from the stages of allocation, distribution, administration, reporting, to accountability, is deemed to have followed the applicable provisions and can do everything well, but can still be improved further for transparency with society by empowering modern technology.

Classification Analysis Of The Eligibility Of Recipients Of Non-Cash Food Assistance And Family Hope Programs In The City Of Sukabumi Using The Naïve Bayes Classifier Algorithm

Providing social assistance is the government's effort to improve the welfare of the underprivileged. Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) and the Family Hope Program (PKH) are two social assistance programs provided by the Indonesian government. BPNT is a food assistance program that is provided non-cash through electronic cards, while PKH is a cash social assistance program provided to poor families with certain criteria. Both programs aim to help the poor meet their food and education needs. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of social assistance programs, a method is needed that can process and analyze data quickly and accurately. One method that can be used is the Naïve Bayes Classifier, which is a probabilistic classification method based on Bayes' theorem. This method can be used to classify data into certain categories based on its probability. In this study, researchers used the Naïve Bayes Classifier method to analyze social assistance data obtained from the BPNT and PKH programs. Data from the Sukabumi City Social Service was used to classify the eligibility of beneficiaries using the Naïve Bayes Classifier algorithm. Out of 5,183 data, 31.2% were classified as "Eligible" and 68.8% as "Ineligible". The algorithm showed 98.77% accuracy in eligibility classification. These results indicate the effectiveness of the Naïve Bayes Classifier algorithm in analyzing social data, providing new insights for better decision-making by relevant agencies in the development of more targeted and efficient social assistance policies

Characterizing Trends in the Use of Food Donations and Other Food-Related Community-Based Social Assistance Programs in a Cohort of New Food Bank Users in Quebec, Canada.

Objective: To characterize 12-month trends in the use of food donations and other food-related community-based social assistance programs (CB-SAPs) during the first year following the enrollment of new food bank (FB) users in Quebec, Canada. Methods: A cohort of 1,001 newly registered FB-users in Quebec from the Pathways Study were followed-up during 12-month following baseline assessment. Outcomes were monthly use of food donations and other food-related CB-SAPs. Main predictors were alternative food source utilization (AFSU) profiles: 1) exclusive-FB-users; 2) FB+fruit/vegetable-market-users; and 3) Multiple/diverse-AFS-users. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and major life events. We fit Bayesian hierarchical mixed-effect models, accounting for spatial clustering, temporal correlation, and censoring. Results: We observed an overall downward trend of food donation use among study completers (n = 745). Each AFSU profile had a distinctive monthly trend of food donation use, but probabilities of use across the three profiles overlapped, between 44% and 55%. The use of other food-related CB-SAPs was low and not correlated with AFSU profiles. Conclusion: De novo FB-users use food donations in different ways over time according to specific contextual AFSU profiles.

The Important Of Digital Accounting And Indonesian Government Incentives In Strengthening MSMEs’ Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: This paper provides a discussion of how financial access, tax incentives, MSMEs’ social assistance programs, accounting skills, and digital accounting utilization affects the MSMEs’ performance, during the COVID-19 pandemicMethod: The data was generated by a questionnaire sent to the food and beverage MSME sector in Semarang City, Central Java, Indonesia. The population in this study was 17.602 MSME in Semarang City, Central Java, Indonesia. The sample was 261 MSMEs in the food and beverage MSMEs sector obtained using a convenience sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, data quality tests, classic assumption tests, regression analyses, and hypotheses were tested with SPSS 25 software. Findings: Based on the hypotheses tests, the results show that accounting skills, digital accounting, and financial access have a significant positive effect on MSMEs’ Performance during Pandemic COVID-19 in Semarang. While tax incentives and MSMEs’ social assistance programs do not affect on MSMEs’ performance during the pandemic.Novelty: This study provides a unique detailed examination of actual practice and an indication of the future trend in digital accounting for MSMEs, and the role of government incentives to assist the MSME’s performance during the pandemic.

Power Relations between Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) Facilitators and Beneficiary Families (KPM) (Study on PKH Implementation in Malang Regency)

Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) is a government social assistance program that aims to reduce poverty and improve the welfare of poor families in Indonesia. The PKH program seeks to reduce this social and economic inequality by providing financial assistance based on certain conditions to beneficiary families. However, a paradox also occurred in Malang when the program budget and number of PKH recipients were from 2018 to 2021. This actually shows that PKH has not succeeded in releasing poor people from the abyss of poverty. Using the phenomenological method, this article was created to understand the business process of implementing PKH. Second, it is related to the social dynamics of PKH implementation. The author discusses how the orientation of PKH assistants as social workers is the key to supporting social and economic change for PKH Beneficiary Families (KPM). And finally, the author discusses Power Relations in the context of PKH. This discussion explains the impact of social dynamics in implementing PKH. As a result, bureaucratic and social pathology, especially in the form of corrupt behavior accompanying PKH, has become a challenge that must be overcome. Social pathology among KPM also influences the implementation of PKH. In a deeper analysis, the power relations between PKH assistants and KPM can be explained using Michel Foucault’s power relations approach, which can be correlated to understand the dynamics and interactions in PKH implementation more thoroughly.