In an experimental setting in Kenya, we show that certain financial and informational interventions delivered over the mobile phone network can be highly effective in boosting facility delivery rates of poor, rural women. Vouchers covering the full cost of care increased facility delivery rates by one-third, but a small copayment reduced the effect to almost zero. Cash transfers sent over the m...

We study a group of young women in rural Malawi who were exposed to a cash transfer experiment as adolescents. More than two years after the end of transfers, we find that the substantial short-term benefits of the program have largely evaporated. Unconditional cash transfers (UCT) caused a shortterm delay of marriage, fertility, and HIV infection, but the ending of the program is immediately f...

OBJECTIVE The authors evaluated the use of conditional cash transfers as an HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention strategy to incentivise safe sex. DESIGN An unblinded, individually randomised and controlled trial. SETTING 10 villages within the Kilombero/Ulanga districts of the Ifakara Health and Demographic Surveillance System in rural south-west Tanzania. PARTICIPANTS The a...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of Mexico's conditional cash transfer programme on the quality of health care received by poor women. Quality is measured by maternal reports of prenatal care procedures received that correspond with clinical guidelines. METHODS The data describe retrospective reports of care received from 892 women in poor rural communities in seven Mexican states. The women...

Children are disproportionately represented among the income-poor, many suffer from severe deprivation, and their poverty and vulnerability have cumulative and long-term consequences. This article provides a comparative examination of the poverty-reduction effectiveness of cash transfer programmes targeting children, focusing on three types of such programmes: the Child Support Grant in South A...

A growing number of less-developed countries have introduced conditional cash transfer programs in which funds are targeted to women. Economic models of the family suggest that these transfer programs may lead to marital turnover among program beneficiaries. Data from the experimental evaluation of the PROGRESA program in Mexico is used to provide new evidence on the short-run impacts of target...

 Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. There is a large literature on the effects of these programs on schooling, health and nutrition, but relatively little is known about possible impacts on child development. This paper analyzes the impact of a cash transfer program on cognitive development in early childhood in rural Nicaragua. Identification is base...

This paper addresses the prevalence of non-monetary gifts over more highly valued and e$cient monetary transfers in social relationships. We demonstrate that under a wide variety of circumstances, ine$cient non-monetary gifts will be o!ered by a donor in lieu of cash in order to signal the donor's quality of information about the recipient's preferences. This result emerges because gift giving ...

A large body of research indicates that child development is sensitive to early-life environments, so that poor children are at higher risk for poor cognitive and behavioral outcomes. These developmental outcomes are important determinants of success in adulthood. Yet, remarkably little is known about whether poverty-alleviation programs improve children's developmental outcomes. We examine how...