cash transfers

When do cash transfers empower women?

Pairing an aspirations workshop with a cash transfer helped Kenyan women gain control of household resources and reduced intimate partner violence.

Social Protection

Mahreen Mahmud Kate Orkin Emma Riley

Published

06.01.26

Cash transfers and agency: What Nigerian couples reveal about household power

In Nigeria, cash transfers to women increase their desire for agency but only when husbands can't see it – revealing the complex interplay between economic empowerment and social norms.

Social Protection

Mehrab Bakhtiar Marcel Fafchamps Markus Goldstein Kenneth Leonard Sreelakshmi Papineni

Published

25.11.25

Empowerment or protection? A potential trade-off in cash transfer design

In Uganda, digital cash transfers had contrasting effects on women’s empowerment: mobile money boosted women’s personal income and decision-making power, while jointly disclosed cash transfers reduced intimate partner violence by fostering trust and ...

Social Protection

Giulia Greco Selim Gulesci Pallavi Prabhakar Munshi Sulaiman

Published

24.09.25

Breadwinner’s burden: How financial relief improved sleep and cognition in Indonesia

Cash transfers improve sleep quality for household heads but not other family members, revealing how financial pressures burden those responsible for providing.

Social Protection

Claire Duquennois Maulik Jagnani

Published

30.07.25

Measuring poverty using mobile phone data: Implications for targeting and impact evaluation

In settings where reliable data on poverty is difficult to come by, non-traditional data sources such as mobile phone metadata has the potential to fill data gaps. New research on a cash transfer programme in Togo reveals that mobile phone data enabl...

Methods & Measurement

Emily Aiken Suzanne Bellue Joshua Blumenstock Dean Karlan Christopher Udry

Published

16.07.25

Understanding the re-emerging effects of cash transfers 12 years on

A new long-term follow-up on a cash grant programme in Uganda shows that impacts partly reappear during crisis times, shedding light on the challenges of long-term RCTs.

Methods & Measurement

Jörg Ankel-Peters Julian Rose

Published

23.06.25

What broad lessons have we learned from 115 studies on unconditional cash transfers?

A meta-analysis of 115 studies shows that unconditional cash transfers have positive impacts on a range of key economic and social outcomes, including consumption, income, labour supply, and child health and education. Around 700 million people curre...

Social Protection

Tommaso Crosta Dean Karlan Finley Ong Julius Ruschenpohler Christopher Udry

Published

16.05.25

The price effects of cash transfer programmes: Insights from research

Cash transfer programmes are designed to reduce poverty and improve well-being, but do they also drive up local prices and harm those who don’t receive them?

Social Protection

Eeshani Kandpal

Published

19.02.25

Supporting the transition to digital cash transfers in rural Mexico

Women in Mexico who switched to digital cash transfers face higher costs and time accessing payments but gain bargaining power. Improving ATM access, reducing fees, providing timely information on the date of transfers and boosting financial literacy...

Social Protection

Fernanda Marquez-Padilla Susan W. Parker

Published

21.01.25