Publication: Cash Transfer Size: How Much Is Enough?
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2024-06-14
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2024-06-14
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As a part of “Evidence at Your Fingertips Series”, this note summarizes the impacts of cash transfers on a range of outcomes, depending on the size (adequacy, benefit level or amount) of transfer values. The review is largely based on the impact evaluations published in the past decade, finding that high(er)-value cash transfers typically produce greater impacts. However, low(er)-value transfers can also achieve measurable impacts, particularly when accompanying by behavior change communication. Provided in lumpsum, high-value transfers may allow beneficiary households to invest or save more compared to smaller transfers provided over time in a frequent manner. While cash transfers show positive impacts in reducing gender related violence, high-value transfers can have the potential to increase physical abuse in certain demographic tiers more than less-conspicuous low-value transfers. Although the size is a key parameter, it is important to consider the confluence with other factors including target population, duration, frequency, timing, and payment modalities when designing and implementing a program.
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“World Bank; Innovations for Poverty Action. 2024. Cash Transfer Size: How Much Is Enough?. Social Protection and Jobs Policy and Technical Note; No.31; Evidence at Your Fingertips Series. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41713 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Cash or In-Kind Transfers(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-14)As a part of “Evidence at Your Fingertips Series”, this note summarizes how the transfer modality can affect outcomes based on a literature review of impact evaluations published in the past decade. In general, cash transfers appear to be more effective than in-kind transfers or vouchers at improving a range of outcomes, including decreasing monetary poverty, improving health and nutrition, and increasing food security, across diverse country contexts, program objectives, and design features. However, identifying a superior modality can be challenging due to the heterogeneity in context, program design, and objectives of the studies reviewed, despite evidence generally favoring the effectiveness of cash transfers and acknowledging the enhanced effectiveness of a combination of modalities, referred to as cash plus, in specific cases. 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The review is largely based on the impact evaluation published in the past decade, finding that the payment mechanism—whether physical (in-person) or digital— does not have notably different impacts on how recipients use cash or on key outcome indicators related to consumption, gender, and financial inclusion. That said, digital transfers may be more cost-effective for both implementers and beneficiary households than physical cash payments, expand customer coverage for participating mobile network operators, and provide avenues to increase financial inclusion for the poor. While digital payments can offer opportunities, it is essential to invest in appropriate infrastructure and mechanisms to reach digitally excluded populations.Publication Evidence at your Fingertips Series: Operational and Design Choices of Social Assistance Programs(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-14)To help policy makers make practical programmatic design choices, the “Evidence at Your Fingertips Series” explains how the design of cash transfer programs can affect outcomes. The review is largely based on impact evaluations published in the past decade. The series is launched with an initial set of five thematic briefs on benefit size, timing (frequency and duration), transfer modality (cash versus in-kind), payment mechanism (physical versus digital), and gender. While the impacts of cash transfers can vary depending on the context, this overview brief aims to present key take aways on how design features can impact cash transfer outcomes. Evidence at Your Fingertips Series: • Evidence Briefs on Cash Transfers: Overview and Ten Key Messages • Cash Transfer Size: How Much Is Enough? • Cash Transfer Timing: How Transfer Duration and Frequency Contribute to Outcomes? • Cash Transfer Payment Mechanisms: Do Outcomes Vary According to Payment Mechanism? • Cash or In-Kind Transfers: Do Outcomes Vary According to Transfer Modality? • Can Safety Nets Reduce Gender-Based Violence? How?Publication Are There Diminishing Returns to Transfer Size in Conditional Cash Transfers?(2009-07-01)There is increasing evidence that conditional cash transfer programs can have large impacts on school enrollment, including in very poor countries. However, little is known about which features of program design -- including the amount of the cash that is transferred, how frequently conditions are monitored, whether non-complying households are penalized, and the identity or gender of the cash recipients -- account for the observed outcomes. 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