Community Currencies as Crisis Response: Results From a Randomized Control Trial in Kenya

This paper presents the results of what may be the world’s first randomized control trial on community currencies, focusing on Grassroots Economics Community Inclusion Currency (CIC) model run on the xDAI blockchain. Beneficiaries in Nairobi, Kenya were sent the equivalent of $30 in cryptocurrency tokens, enabling a level of impact evaluation usually unfeasible for most cash and mobile-money based transfer programs. Results show that CIC transfers of $30 are associated with $93.51 increase in beneficiaries wallet balance, a $23.17 increase in monthly CIC income, a $16.30 increase in monthly CIC spending, a $6.31 increase in average trade size and a $28.43 increase in expenditure on food and water. However, the difference in treatment effects for males versus females suggests gender imbalances persist. This study serves as an important prototype for novel cash transfer models and presents some of the first quantitative evidence in the area of “crypto for good.”

Effects of Season on Donor and Recipient Cows and Calf Performance from Birth to Weaning in Embryo Transfer Programs in the Tropics

The aim of this study was to assess the seasonal effect of an embryo transfer program in the tropics on the donor response, recipient reproductive performance and calf growth from birth to weaning. This study included five-year records from 145 donors, 1149 embryo transfers (ET) and 609 in calves. The effect of the season (dry or wet) was evaluated at the time of embryo flushing, embryo transfer and birth of the calves. There was a seasonal effect on the yield and quality of the embryos. The number of nonfertilized and transferable good quality embryos increased in the wet season. For the recipients, the probability of pregnancy after an ET decreased by 6% for each year of the dam’s age. However, no seasonal effect was found when comparing ET calves with their control group (natural mating—NM), nevertheless, weaning weight was associated with birth body weight, treatment, sex of the calf, season at birth, year of treatment, and dam’s age. Calves born by NM had lower average daily gain (ADG), and male calves registered higher gains than females. Likewise, calves born during the rainy season had lower ADG compared with calves born during the dry season. In conclusion, this study shows that seasonal effect is more apparent in donor and calf performance than in the recipients.

Cash Transfer Programs and HIV-Related Outcomes: an Analysis of 42 Countries from 1996 to 2019

Background Many low- and middle-income countries have introduced cash transfer programs as part of their poverty reduction and social protection strategies. These programs have the potential to overcome various drivers of HIV risk behaviors and usage of HIV services, but their overall effects on a broad range of HIV-related outcomes remains unknown. Methods We used publicly reported data to determine whether low- and middle-income countries with HIV prevalence >1% and baseline annual incidence >1/1000 had conditional or unconditional cash transfer programs that covered >5% of the impoverished population, and the year in which those programs began and ended. We obtained country- and individual-level data on HIV-related outcomes from UNAIDS and population-representative household surveys, focusing on the period between 1996 and 2019. We conducted difference-in-differences analyses with country and year fixed effects to evaluate the effects of cash transfer programs on country- and individual-level HIV-related outcomes. Findings Forty-two countries across three continents were included. Among these, 21 were in the intervention group, having implemented cash program(s) with impoverished population coverage greater than 5% during the study period. Cash transfer programs were associated with lower probability of reporting sexually transmitted infection within the last 12 months among females (odds ratio [OR] 0.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.50-0.91) and higher probability of an HIV test within the last 12 months among females (OR 2.61, 95% CI 1.15-5.88) and males (OR 3.19, 95% CI 2.45-4.15). For country-level outcomes, cash transfer programs were associated with a reduction in new HIV infections (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.99), but not with the proportion of people with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy (5.0%, 95% CI -0.2-10.1) or AIDS-related deaths (IRR 0.99, 95% CI 0.95-1.03), though temporal analyses showed delayed improvements in both antiretroviral coverage and deaths. Interpretations Cash transfer programs, which are being expanded in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, have the potential to promote ongoing efforts to end HIV as a public health threat. Alongside the already existing focus on expanding biomedical services, these anti-poverty programs can play a greater role in achieving global targets for HIV prevention and treatment. Funding None

Cash transfers for HIV prevention: A systematic review

Background Given the success of cash programs in improving health outcomes and addressing upstream drivers of HIV risk such as poverty and education, there has been an increasing interest in their potential to improve HIV prevention and care outcomes. Recent reviews have documented the impacts of structural interventions on HIV prevention, but evidence about the effects of cash transfer programs on HIV prevention has not been systematically reviewed for several years. Methods and findings We did a systematic review of published and unpublished literature to update and summarize the evidence around cash programs for HIV prevention from January 2000 to December 17, 2020. We included studies with either a cash transfer intervention, savings program, or program to reduce school costs. Included studies measured the program’s impact on HIV infection, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or sexual behaviors. We screened 1,565 studies and examined 78 in full-text review to identify a total of 45 peer-reviewed publications and reports from 27 different interventions or populations. We did not do a meta-analysis given the range of outcomes and types of cash transfer interventions assessed. Most studies were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa (N = 23; South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and eSwatini) followed by Mexico (N = 2), the United States (N = 1), and Mongolia (N = 1)). Of the 27 studies, 20 (72%) were randomized trials, 5 (20%) were observational studies, 1 (4%) was a case–control study, and 1 (4%) was quasi-experimental. Most studies did not identify a strong association between the program and sexual behaviors, except sexual debut (10/18 finding an association; 56%). Eight of the 27 studies included HIV biomarkers, but only 3 found a large reduction in HIV incidence or prevalence, and the rest found no statistically significant association. Of the studies that identified a statistically significant association with other STIs (N = 4/8), 2 involved incentives for staying free of the STI, and the other 2 were cash transfer programs for adolescent girls that had conditionalities related to secondary schooling. Study limitations include the small number of studies in key populations and examining interventions to reduce school costs and matched saving programs. Conclusions The evidence base for large-scale impacts of cash transfers reducing HIV risk is limited; however, government social protection cash transfer programs and programs that incentivize school attendance among adolescent girls and young women show the greatest promise for HIV prevention.

Optics of the State: The Politics of Making Poverty Visible in Brazil and Mexico

Sociological studies stress how state legibility serves as a form of populational control. Often overlooked are how states differ in their will to control, and how this variation shapes legibility projects. This article proposes a three-dimensional analytical framework to study legibility from a comparative perspective that seeks to account for this variation. I illustrate the usefulness of this framework through an in-depth analysis of how Brazil and Mexico rendered poor individuals visible in order to implement conditional cash transfer programs (or CCTs). In the mid-1990s, these two states implemented the same policy, facing very similar challenges; yet, they adopted different solutions for governing their respective CCT programs and making poor families visible. Drawing on the analysis of approximately 10,000 pages of official documents, 100 in-depth interviews with bureaucratic and political elites, and 18 months of fieldwork in Brazil and Mexico, this article reveals the political and governance effects of distinct methods of seeing like a state. Specifically, I show that the differences and consequences of legibility projects depended on the politics of legitimation of each CCT program and had the unanticipated effect of making the state itself visible to broader publics and thus subject to intense scrutiny.

Adaptive, but not by design: cash transfers in Latin America and the Caribbean before, during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

The socioeconomic crisis associated with the pandemic put cash transfer programs back at the top of the policy agenda. It showed that the Latin American and Caribbean regions income support systems were both fundamental and insufficient. In this paper, we present novel estimates of the coverage and beneficiary distribution of all non-contributory cash transfers both before and during the COVID-19 crisis. The former is useful to show the degree of preparedness of the region. The latter analyzes the magnitude of the policy response. While the literature presents estimates of coverage and leakage of conditional cash transfers and non-contributory pensions, our results are novel because they are the first to analyze coverage and leakage implemented in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, we are the first to expand the focus to all non-contributory cash transfer programs, including those that are quasi-universal and/or unconditional. This is the most appropriate focus when the goal is to assess the ability to provide protection to larger population groups (including the vulnerable) and against transitory poverty caused by systemic shocks (such as pandemic or extreme weather events, which may become more and more frequent due to climate change). Using data from the Inter-American Development Bank “Harmonized Household Surveys from Latin America and the Caribbean”, which now provide a more comprehensive coverage of Caribbean countries, we show that before the pandemic non-contributory cash transfers covered 26% of the population of 17 countries with available data. Average coverage of the extreme poor, moderate poor and vulnerable population was 56%, 43% and 28% respectively. During the crisis, LAC governments implemented 111 new cash transfer interventions, increasing coverage to 34% of the population in 12 countries with available data. Average coverage increased among the moderate poor (50%) and vulnerable population (37%), while it remained unvaried amongst the extreme poor. Moving forward, the countries of the region are called to reform their social protection systems to make them more flexible, efficient, and sustainable, and including strategies that provide protection against shocks. In this way, resilient and responsive social protection systems can contribute to the fight against climate change and support a just transition towards net-zero emission societies. These efforts must also include measures to close the historical coverage gap amongst the poorest.

The Long-Run Effects of Childhood Insurance Coverage: Medicaid Implementation, Adult Health, and Labor Market Outcomes

This paper estimates the long-run effects of childhood Medicaid eligibility on adult health and economic outcomes using the program’s original introduction ( 1966–1970) and its mandated coverage of welfare recipients. The design compares cohorts born in different years relative to Medicaid implementation, in states with different preexisting welfare-based eligibility. Early childhood Medicaid eligibility reduces mortality and disability, increases employment, and reduces receipt of disability transfer programs up to 50 years later. Medicaid has saved the government more than its original cost and saved more than 10 million quality adjusted life years. (JEL H51, I12, I18, I32, I38, J13)