Researchers

Shilpa Aggarwal, Jenny Aker, Dahyeon Jeong, Naresh Kumar, David Park, Jonathan Robinson, Alan Spearot

Abstract

An increasingly popular anti-poverty program in many developing countries is to simply give poor people cash unconditionally. In principle, giving cash can be transferred relatively efficiently to households, with minimal overhead. The relatively recent technological innovation of mobile money marks a huge leap forward in this respect—it is now possible to text money to poor beneficiaries quickly and securely. In Liberia, IPA is evaluating the first large unconditional cash transfer implemented by GiveDirectly. Within this project, a monthly high-frequency phone survey has been running since early 2019. In the light of the crisis, additional COVID-19 related questions have been added to be able to capture the direct and indirect impacts the pandemic is having on the livelihoods of these rural households.

Project Outcomes of Interest

Improvements in food security, expenditure, wealth, non-agricultural income; reduction in intimate partner violence (IPV) against women by male partners; household resilience, interpersonal transfers, COVID specific outcomes (disruptions, health, awareness, migration, mobile money)

Partners

GiveDirectly

Impact Goals

Project Data Collection Mode

Link to Pre-Registration

http://socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4869

Link to Data Collection Instruments

http://socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4869

Link to Public Data

http://socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4869

Results Status

No Results Yet