One of the most important push factors for refugees who spontaneously return to Syria is lack of income or livelihoods (Hall 2018).<sup>4</sup> Cash assistance is not only important for a family’s ability to pay for basic needs, but also one of the key inputs to increase the access of refugee children to education (Shammout and Vandecasteele 2019). Cash transfers are seen as an effective way to deliver humanitarian support to refugees, emphasizing dignity and self-reliance (UK House of Commons 2019), although the optimal form of assistance (cash or food) often depends on the circumstances (Hoddinott, Sandström, and Upton 2018). They can improve social cohesion among refugees by changing attitudes towards diversity and by increasing social participation and confidence in institutions (Valli, Peterman, and Hidrobo 2019). Cash transfers are also likely to have positive repercussions for the host communities, by increasing the purchasing power of refugees (Alix-Garcia, Walker, and Bartlett 2019). Lehmann and Masterson (2020) argue that this might be one channel behind their finding that cash transfers to Syrian refugees in Lebanon reduced anti-refugee violence. The demand for financial services has increased in areas populated by refugees in Rwanda and Kenya, as the WFP and UNHCR transition from in-kind food assistance to unconditional cash grants (BFA Global 2018; IFC 2018). Such a transition would seem to be welcomed by refugee populations: a study of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Bangladesh revealed that the most vulnerable IDPs prefer cash support rather than capacity building and skills training (Dutta 2020). Making the case for economic empowerment of both refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, the International Rescue Committee advocates for skills training, livelihoods support, and cash-based interventions, especially as functioning markets are conducive to such programs (IRC 2019).<sup>5</sup> A number of studies have focused on Syrian refugees in the context of Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. UNHCR and WFP provided cash-based assistance for various purposes (winterization of housing, food, child grants, etc.) to approximately 170,000 refugees in Lebanon between 2017 and 2018 (UNHCR, UNICEF, and WFP 2018). UNHCR provides cash assistance to Syrian refugees in Jordan, using guidelines from their Vulnerability Assessment Framework, with monthly cash transfers ranging from $112-$218 per household (Salemi, Bowman, and Compton 2018). However, not all eligible families receive support due to financial constraints, and those who do report that the transfers are not sufficient to cover their basic needs. Refugees receiving ESSN risk losing benefits if they work formally and they are restricted to seeking formal work in the place they are registered (Del Carpio, Şeker, and Yener 2018), although there is no evidence that ESSN eligibility rule contributes meaningfully to the low formal sector employment rates of refugees in Turkey (see Section 2).

Using a regression discontinuity design and repeated cross-sectional data collection at three 6-month intervals, Chaaban et al. (2020) report that the multi-purpose cash assistance in Lebanon reduced food insecurity,

> 4 This sub-section draws heavily from the Forced Displacement Literature Review: 2019-20, which is compiled by the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (last updated May 2020).

> 5 Sometimes it is also advisable to complement cash with food assistance, depending on whether there are functioning markets, and the pursuit of nutritional goals (Langendorf et al, PLOS).

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