Impacts of Social Assistance During the COVID‐19 Pandemic in Poor Remote Communities

ABSTRACT Providing social assistance to poor populations in remote communities in times of crises, such as pandemics, is challenging but crucial. This paper examines how food assistance during the COVID‐19 pandemic affected people's behaviour, using our surveys among over 400 rural communities without road access in the Peruvian Amazon. Food assistance affected people's travel to cities by riverboat to collect cash assistance in distinct ways, depending on transportation costs. Both government and nongovernment food assistance increased social distancing, but nongovernment assistance may have unintentionally led to further contagion of the virus through river travel. We discuss mechanisms underlying these impacts, shaped by the distinct geographic targeting of assistance providers.