Do Conditional Cash Transfers Improve Diets? Evidence from Indonesia's Program Keluarga Harapan
This study aims to examine the impact of Indonesia’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) called Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) on household dietary-related outcomes using longitudinal data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) spanning the period of 2007-2014. Through a Propensity-Score Matching (PSM) with a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach, this study estimates the causal effect of PKH on household dietary diversity and food expenditures. I find that there are no statistically significant effects of PKH participation towards household dietary diversity scores (HDDS). However, PKH beneficiaries in the sample tend to spend more on food: mostly staples (cereals), eggs, milk, and milk products. This study contributes to the literature in two ways, by complementing existing international CCT literature and adding new evidence for PKH impact evaluation on diets at the household-level.