The Impact of Social Safety Nets: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Cash, Information, and Home Visits

Richard Akresh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Damien De Walque, 1818 H Street NW
Harounan Kazianga, Oklahoma State University
Abigail Stocker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Cash transfers have become a critical part of developing country governments’ social safety nets. Recently, home visits programs are being implemented to help households overcome barriers to improving children’s development. Working with the Burkina Faso government, we conduct a randomized experiment in 225 rural villages to assess the impact of an integrated social safety net over the child’s life cycle. Villages were randomized to a control group or one of the following treatments: cash transfers only; cash transfers plus government-run information meetings focused on children’s health and psycho-social development; or cash transfers, information, and home visits reinforcing the information meetings. Households receiving the full intervention (cash, information, and home visits) have fewer pregnancies, more medically assisted childbirths, enhanced health behaviors, improved child anthropometrics, and better educational outcomes. Additionally, home visits are critical for improving early childhood development, while cash transfers, with or without information meetings, do not improve these outcomes.

Keywords: Economic Demography, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Randomized controlled experiments , Families, Unions and Households

See paper.