The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on General Welfare in Kenya

Researchers: Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, Michael Walker

Providing cash grants to low-income households without any strings attached has been proven to have various benefits on the lives of those who receive the transfers, but less is known about how this sudden influx of income affects the local economy and people living nearby. In western Kenya, researchers evaluated the impact of unconditional cash transfers, provided by the organization GiveDirectly, on household well-being and local economic activity. The transfers led to large increases in consumption and assets for recipients, as well as large positive impacts on consumption for non-recipient households and revenue for firms. These results counter concerns that large cash transfers may harm those who do not receive them.

Read the full summary here and the working paper here.

Watch: Esther Duflo's Speech at Nobel Ceremony

"I stand here today in the name of hundreds of researchers, thousands of staff members at the organizations which support their work, like J-PAL and IPA, thousands of staff members of the non-profit organizations who partnered with us over many years, dozens of national and sub-national governments, the individuals, foundations, and governments and agencies who have supported our collective work on behalf of and with the involvement of the world's poor."

— Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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