ABSTRACT
Social benefits can be provided either in cash or in kind. Cash benefits are income transfers, such as retirement pensions, unemployment benefits, and social assistance. Benefits in kind can be defined as commodities (i.e. goods or services) directly transferred to recipients at zero or below-market prices (Glennerster, 2009; Barr, 2012). This chapter describes the characteristics of benefits in kind and cash benefits, reviews the
main arguments for and against in-kind provision, and discusses the implications of choosing one type of benefit over the other in terms of distributional effects, incentives to participate in the labour market, and administrative ease.
