Cash benchmarking
Is it better to provide social support in cash or in kind?
Coauthor: Craig McIntosh
What is the most effective way to provide social protection in low-income settings: through in-kind programs that target specific constraints, or through unconditional transfers? In two related projects, Craig McIntosh I have developed the idea of using unconditional cash transfers as a benchmark against which to gauge the cost-effectiveness of social safety net programs: cash benchmarking.
We apply this framework in a pair of randomized trials that benmchmark USAID-financed social protection programs against cash in Rwanda. (See USAID’s description of this research program here.
Gikuriro
Our first study compares Gikuriro, a nutritional and maternal health program, with cash transfers.
Paper:
- McIntosh and Zeitlin (Economic Journal 2024): “Cash Versus Kind: Benchmarking a Child Nutrition Program Against Unconditional Cash Transfers in Rwanda”. (Ungated working paper version here)
Press and blog coverage:
- NY Times (September 11, 2018): Is Cash Better for Poor People Than Conventional Foreign Aid?
- Washington Post (September 26, 2018): Foreign aid as a cash-only transaction? It’s worth a try.
- Vox (September 13, 2018): The small study in Rwanda that could change the way the US does foreign aid;
- Quartz (September 13, 2018): Researchers tested conventional foreign aid against cash in Rwanda. Cash won. ;
- NPR (September 14, 2018): Which Foreign Aid Programs Work? The U.S. Runs A Test—But Won’t Talk About It.
- Development Impact Blog (guest post, September 14, 2018): Lessons from a cash benchmarking evaluation
Huguka Dukore
Our second trial compares an employment training program, Huguka Dukore, with cash transfers.
Papers:
- McIntosh and Zeitlin (Journal of Development Economics 2022): “Using household grants to benchmark the effectiveness of a USAID workforce readiness program”. (Ungated working paper version here)
- McIntosh and Zeitlin (Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming): “Skills and liquidity barriers to youth employment: Medium-term evidence from cash benchmarking experiment in Rwanda” (Ungated working paper version here)
Press:
- devex (September 3, 2020): New study shows benefits, limits of cash transfers
- Vox (September 2015, 2020): A new study from Rwanda is the latest evidence for just giving people moneyx
- NPR (November 2, 2021): What happens when you give cash to people in need?