Abstract

As coronavirus begins to spread in developing countries, an important question is whether poor households will adhere to social distancing given the likely inability to work remotely, and the subsequent large income losses. In such a context, mobile money transfers may not only help households maintain consumption levels, they may also complement social distancing policies - those that get the cash may work less, and stay at home more. We are launching a three-arm mobile money transfer study in Ghana to test this idea. Specifically, using a subset of poor households from the Ghana Panel Survey (a representative panel dataset collected over the last decade) we will randomize households to receive a large weekly transfer, a small weekly transfer, or no weekly transfer. We will examine effects on a battery of economic and psychological measures of well-being as well as adherence with social distancing and self-isolation.

Funding for this project was provided by the UK Department for International Development, awarded through IPA's Peace & Recovery Program.

Project Data Collection Mode

Researchers (*corresponding author)

Robert Darko Osei, Dean Karlan, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Ben Roth, Christopher Udry

Questionnaire File Type

Reader-friendly survey instrument

Questionnaire Language(s)

English