Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers on Growth, Income Distribution and Poverty

The workshop on "Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers on Growth, Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected ASEAN countries" was held on April 19, 2011, at ERIA with Working Group (WG) members from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

The focus of this study is to analyze the impacts of conditional cash transfers on income distribution and poverty.

During the meeting, the WG members discussed about methodologies and preliminarily assessment of the proposed social assistance programs for each country. The studies would address the issues of adequacy, affordability, and some ex-post assessment of the proposed schemes, such as supports to elderly poor and scholarships for poor children, on growth, income distribution, and poverty.

Results from the study are expected to provide some policy implications on how to choose the best policy options in terms of social transfers with optimal financial resources and impacts on income distribution and poverty and draw on experiences from international best practices.