Also Inside: Benchmarking Cash to an Employment Program in Rwanda.

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IPA Random Update

LATEST RESEARCH & NEWS

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FEATURED STUDY

Universal Basic Income Helped Hard-Hit Households Weather the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya

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Researchers: Abhijit Banerjee, Michael Faye, Alan Krueger, Paul Niehaus, and Tavneet Suri

To what extent do cash transfers cushion the blow to poor families during hard times? Taking advantage of a pre-existing large-scale evaluation of a universal basic income (UBI) project in Kenya, researchers measured how different types of cash transfers impact recipients’ income, reported well-being, food security, mental health, and social interaction in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying agricultural seasonality. Researchers found that although the income gains from small businesses started before the pandemic were wiped out, transfer recipients experienced modestly better food security and physical and mental health than those who had not received transfers, along with some positive impacts on public health indicators. The results suggest that cash helped hard-hit households weather a storm, but that UBI was not enough to shield households completely from the economic hit, in part, because it had induced them to increase their risk exposure.

Read the summary here

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and a conversation with the research team on our blog here

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FEATURED STUDY

Benchmarking Cash to an Employment Program in Rwanda

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Researchers: Craig McIntosh and Andrew Zeitlin

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How does an employment and training program compare, in impacts and cost, to just giving people cash? In Rwanda, researchers worked with IPA to evaluate the impacts and cost-effectiveness of a youth employment program, cash grants of equal cost to the funder, and a combination of the two on employment status, time use, beneficiary income from wages and/or self-employment, value of productive assets owned by the beneficiary household, and household consumption, as well as a range of secondary outcomes and intermediate mechanisms. After 18 months, the training program improved productive hours, assets, savings, and subjective well-being, while cost-equivalent cash transfers improved all these outcomes as well as consumption, income, and wealth. In the head-to-head costing comparison, cash proves superior across a number of economic outcomes, while training outperforms cash only in the production of business knowledge. The 36-month endline survey will provide evidence on longer-term impacts.

Read the summary here

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and the latest paper here.

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FEATURED PUBLICATION

Key Decisions for COVID-19 Social Protection in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

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By Rachel Strohm and Nathanael Goldberg​

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How should policymakers decide what type of support to provide to vulnerable citizens during the pandemic, and which individuals should benefit? This policy brief outlines four key decisions in social protection program design. These choices relate to topics like determining funding requirements, selecting beneficiaries, and deciding whether beneficiaries should receive cash payments, digital payments, or in-kind transfers of food or other goods.

Read the full brief here

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BLOG

Studying Universal Basic Income During COVID-19: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

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By Eunice Kioko, Teresa Lezcano, Jeffrey Mosenkis, Tavneet Suri, and Debborah Wambua

Using Evidence to Inform Social Policy in the Philippines in the Time of COVID-19: RECOVR Survey Reveals Priorities for Economic Recovery

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By Mariel Bayangos, Raquel Celeste, Karisha Anne Cruz, Luciana Debenedetti, Shahana Hirji, and Nassreena Sampaco-Baddiri

RECOVR Roundup: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19

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Giving People Cash During COVID: A Look at What We're Working On

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By Kate Glynn-Broderick

The Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Côte d’Ivoire: Lessons from the RECOVR Survey

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By Luciana Debenedetti, Shahana Hirji, Samuel Kembou Nzale, Cyrille Gnalega, and Ben Anderson Koffi



IPA IN THE NEWS

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How a Basic Income Experiment Helped Kenyan Households Weather the COVID-19 Crisis

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New Study of How the Pandemic Is Affecting Kids in Ghana

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​​​​In Vox, What a Study in Kenya Can Teach Us About Improving the Lives of the Unbanked

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EVENTS

RECENT

IPA's Consumer Protection Research Initiative Holds First Practitioner’s Forum Meeting

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September 29 | Webinar, United States

IPA Presents at UNGA Side Event on Resuming In-Person Data Collection during COVID-19

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September 24 | Webinar, United States

Learning from Rapid Data to Inform Policy on COVID-19 in Zambia and Malawi

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September 11 | Webinar, United States

Using Evidence to Inform Social Policy in the Time of COVID-19: RECOVR Survey Results from the Philippines

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September 1 | Webinar, Philippines

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