Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger

Cash transfer programs have spread rapidly as an instrument to raise household consumption and reduce poverty. Questions remain about the sustainability of cash transfer impacts in low-income settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular,...

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Main Authors:	Stoeffler, Quentin, Mills, Bradford, Premand, Patrick
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:	cash transfers productive assets investment poverty consumption savings groups
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26819456/poor-households-productive-investments-cash-transfers-quasi-experimental-evidence-niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25155

id	okr-10986-25155
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-251552021-04-23T14:04:29Z Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford Premand, Patrick cash transfers productive assets investment poverty consumption savings groups Cash transfer programs have spread rapidly as an instrument to raise household consumption and reduce poverty. Questions remain about the sustainability of cash transfer impacts in low-income settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, on whether cash transfers can foster productive investments in addition to raising immediate consumption among the very poor. This paper presents evidence that a cash transfer project in rural Niger induced investments in assets and productive activities that were sustained among the very poor 18 months after project completion. Results show lasting increases in livestock assets and participation in saving groups (tontines). Cash transfers also contributed to improved agricultural productivity, but no effects in terms of diversification of other household enterprises are found. Productive asset gains are, notably, largest among the poorest of the poor, suggesting that small regular cash transfers combined with enhanced saving mechanisms can relax constraints to asset accumulation among the extreme poor. 2016-10-13T20:46:52Z 2016-10-13T20:46:52Z 2016-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26819456/poor-households-productive-investments-cash-transfers-quasi-experimental-evidence-niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25155 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7839 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Niger
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	cash transfers productive assets investment poverty consumption savings groups
spellingShingle	cash transfers productive assets investment poverty consumption savings groups Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford Premand, Patrick Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
geographic_facet	Africa Niger
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7839
description	Cash transfer programs have spread rapidly as an instrument to raise household consumption and reduce poverty. Questions remain about the sustainability of cash transfer impacts in low-income settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, on whether cash transfers can foster productive investments in addition to raising immediate consumption among the very poor. This paper presents evidence that a cash transfer project in rural Niger induced investments in assets and productive activities that were sustained among the very poor 18 months after project completion. Results show lasting increases in livestock assets and participation in saving groups (tontines). Cash transfers also contributed to improved agricultural productivity, but no effects in terms of diversification of other household enterprises are found. Productive asset gains are, notably, largest among the poorest of the poor, suggesting that small regular cash transfers combined with enhanced saving mechanisms can relax constraints to asset accumulation among the extreme poor.
format	Working Paper
author	Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford Premand, Patrick
author_facet	Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford Premand, Patrick
author_sort	Stoeffler, Quentin
title	Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
title_short	Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
title_full	Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
title_fullStr	Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
title_full_unstemmed	Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger
title_sort	poor households' productive investments of cash transfers : quasi-experimental evidence from niger
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2016
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26819456/poor-households-productive-investments-cash-transfers-quasi-experimental-evidence-niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25155
_version_	1764458691016261632

Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Niger

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