Ideas, evidence and practices from the world of social protection... by Ugo Gentilini
Let’s begin with a fundamental question: do cash transfers generate “productive” effects? Correa et review the evidence for three design variants (cash only, cash-plus and “graduation” packages) and four main outcomes in Africa . Such outcomes include: (a) productive assets, where effects on livestock ownership were of 0.2 standard deviations (and slightly larger for cash plus and graduation programs relative to stand-alone cash); (b) agricultural inputs and farm management techniques (for which evidence is
And here is an even more crucial query: can cash transfers save lives? Based on a cohort study of 4882 municipalities in Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico over 20 years (2000-2019), Cavalcanti et al show that conditional cash transfers coverage led to a reduction in children mortality by 24% — put differently, CCTs prevented 738,919 deaths among children under 5 years of age. A strongest association between coverage and mortality was found with malnutrition and HIV/AIDS, and lower association with respiratory inf