Determinants of Poverty amongst Zakah Recipients in Indonesia: A Household Level Analysis

Strategies aimed to increase the impacts of zakah in alleviating poverty need to identify factors that are strongly associated with poverty and subsequently amenable to zakah interventions. However, existing empirical studies related to zakah rarely highlight this issue. This study, therefore, examine the determinants of poverty amongst zakah recipients in Indonesia in order to enhance effectiveness of zakah targeting in alleviating poverty in the world’s largest Muslim country. To achieve the objective, the study collected primary data of the households receiving zakah assistance in Greater Jakarta Indonesia and utilized a logistic regression model to analyse the determinants of poverty amongst the recipients. The main result suggests that lower age, lower education, less formal occupation, smaller households size and non-economic zakah assistance were related to a higher probability of being poor. The results suggest that these groups of people should be the main target of zakah interventions in Indonesia. The findings should be taken into account by zakah organizations, government and other relevant institutions to enhance the impacts of zakah in alleviating poverty not only in Indonesia but also in other Muslim countries.