THE IMPACT OF EMERGENCY CASH ASSISTANCE IN A PANDEMIC: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM COLOMBIA
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SUBMITTER: Querubin P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11349326 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectiveConditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes provide income to low-income families in return for fulfilling specific behavioural conditions. CCT have been shown to improve child health, but there are few systematic studies of their impact on multiple determinants of child health. We examined the impact of a CCT programme in Colombia on: (i) use of preventive health services; (ii) food consumption and dietary diversity; (iii) mother's knowledge, attitudes and practices about caregiving practices; (iv) maternal employment; and (v) women's empowerment.DesignSecondary analysis of the quasi-experimental evaluation of the Familias en Accion programme. Children and families were assessed in 2002, 2003 and 2005-06. We applied a difference-in-differences approach using logistic or linear regression, separately examining effects for urban and rural areas.SettingColombia.SubjectsChildren (n 1450) and their families in thirty-one treatment municipalities were compared with children (n 1851) from sixty-five matched control municipalities.ResultsFamilias en Accion was associated with a significant increase in the probability of using preventive care services (OR=1·85, 95 % CI 1·03, 3·30) and growth and development check-ups (β=1·36, 95 % CI 0·76, 1·95). It had also a positive impact on dietary diversity and food consumption. No effect was observed on maternal employment, women's empowerment, and knowledge, attitudes and practices about caregiving practices. Overall, Familias en Accion's impact was more marked in rural areas.ConclusionCCT in Colombia increase contact with preventive care services and improve dietary diversity, but they are less effective in influencing mother's employment decisions, empowerment and knowledge of caregiving practices.
| S-EPMC10271116 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We use a randomized controlled trial to study the response of poor households in rural Kenya to unconditional cash transfers from the NGO GiveDirectly. The transfers differ from other programs in that they are explicitly unconditional, large, and concentrated in time. We randomized at both the village and household levels; furthermore, within the treatment group, we randomized recipient gender (wife versus husband), transfer timing (lump-sum transfer versus monthly installments), and transfer magnitude (US$404 PPP versus US$1,525 PPP). We find a strong consumption response to transfers, with an increase in household monthly consumption from $158 PPP to $193 PPP nine months after the transfer began. Transfer recipients experience large increases in psychological well-being. We find no overall effect on levels of the stress hormone cortisol, although there are differences across some subgroups. Monthly transfers are more likely than lump-sum transfers to improve food security, whereas lump-sum transfers are more likely to be spent on durables, suggesting that households face savings and credit constraints. Together, these results suggest that unconditional cash transfers have significant impacts on economic outcomes and psychological well-being.
| S-EPMC7575201 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This paper examines the impacts of emergency cash-transfers on individuals' social distancing behaviour and beliefs about COVID-19. We focus on the impacts of "Auxilio Emergencial" (AE): a large-scale cash-transfer in Brazil targeting low-income individuals who were unemployed or informally employed during the pandemic. To identify causal effects we exploit exogenous variation, arising from the AE design, in individuals' access to the cash-transfer programme. Using data from an online survey, our results suggest that eligibility to the emergency cash transfer led to a reduced likelihood of individuals contracting COVID-19, likely to have been driven by a reduction in working hours. Moreover, the cash transfer seems to have increased perceptions about the seriousness of coronavirus, while also exacerbating misconceptions about the pandemic. These findings indicate effects of emergency cash-transfers in determining individuals' narratives about a pandemic, in enabling social distancing and potentially in reducing the spread of the disease.
| S-EPMC9968470 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Misinformation represents a vital threat to the societal fabric of modern economies. While skills interventions to detect misinformation such as de-bunking and prebunking, media literacy, and manipulation resilience have begun to receive increased attention, evidence on de-biasing interventions and their link with misinformation vulnerability is scarce. We explore the demand for misinformation through the lens of augmenting critical thinking in an online framed field experiment during the 2022 Presidential election in Colombia. Data from roughly 2.000 individuals suggest that providing individuals with information about their own biases (obtained through a personality test) has no impact on skepticism towards news. But (additionally) showing participants a de-biasing video seems to enhance critical thinking, causing subjects to more carefully consider the truthfulness of potential misinformation.
| S-EPMC11475746 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We deliver one month's average profit to a randomly selected group of female microenterprise owners in Dandora, Kenya, arriving just in advance of an exponential growth in COVID-19 cases. Relative to a control group, firms recoup about one third of their initial decline in profit, and food expenditures increase. Control profit responds to economic conditions and government announcements during our study period, and treatment effects are largest when control profit is at its lowest. PPE spending and precautionary management practices increase to mitigate the health risks of more intensive firm operation, but only among those who perceive COVID-19 as a major risk.
| S-EPMC9238018 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To address ongoing food insecurity and acute malnutrition in Somalia, a broad range of assistance modalities are used, including in-kind food, food vouchers, and cash transfers. Evidence of the impact of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) on prevention of acute malnutrition is limited in humanitarian and development settings. This study examined the impact of CVA on prevention of child acute malnutrition in 2017/2018 in the context of the Somalia food crisis. Changes in diet and acute malnutrition were measured over a 4-month period among children age 6-59 months from households receiving household transfers of approximately US$450 delivered either as food vouchers or a mix of in-kind food, vouchers, and cash. Baseline to endline change in children's dietary diversity, meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet (MAD), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), and acute malnutrition (MUAC < 12.5 cm) were compared using difference-in-difference analysis with inverse probability weighting. There were no statistically significant changes in dietary diversity, meal frequency, or the proportion of children with MAD for either intervention group. Adjusted change in mean MUAC showed increases of 0.5 cm (confidence interval [CI; 0.0, 0.7 cm]) in the food voucher group and 0.1 cm (CI [-0.1, 0.4]) in the mixed transfer group. In adjusted analysis, prevalence of acute malnutrition among children under 5 years increased by 0.7% (CI [-13.4, 14.4%]) among food voucher recipients and decreased by 4.8% (CI [-9.9, 8.1%]) in mixed transfer recipients. The change over time in both mean MUAC and acute malnutrition prevalence was similar for both interventions, suggesting that cash and vouchers had similar effects on child nutrition status.
| S-EPMC7296788 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionPrevalence of obesity is rising in Latin America and increasingly affecting socially disadvantaged groups, particularly women. Conditional cash transfers are recently established welfare interventions in the region. One, Familias en Accion, transfers ∼20% of average monthly income to women in Colombia's poorest families. Previous work has found that families buy more food as a result. We tested the hypothesis that participation in Familias would be associated with increasing body mass index (BMI) in participating women.MethodsWomen from participating areas and control areas (matched on environmental and socioeconomic criteria) were surveyed in 2002 and 2006. Pregnant, breast-feeding or women aged <18 or with BMI <18.5 kg m(-2) were excluded. The sample comprises 835 women from control and 1238 from treatment areas. Because some treatment areas started Familias shortly before baseline data collection, a dummy variable was created that identified exposure independent of time point or area. Follow-up was 61.5%. BMI was measured by trained personnel using standardized techniques. Overweight was defined as BMI ≥ 25 kg m(-2) and obesity as ≥ 30 kg m(-2). The effect of Familias was estimated using linear regression (or logistic regression for dichotomous outcomes) in a double-difference technique, controlling for several individual, household and area characteristics, including parity and baseline BMI, using robust standard-errors clustered at area-level in an intention-to-treat analysis.ResultsAt baseline, women's mean age was 33.3 years and mean BMI 25.3 kg m(-2); 12.3% women were obese. After adjustment, exposure to Familias was significantly associated with increased BMI (β=0.25; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.03, 0.47; P=0.03). Age (β=0.09; 95% CI 0.06, 0.13; P<0.001) and household wealth (β=0.78; 95% CI 0.41, 1.15; P<0.001) were also positively associated with BMI. Familias was also associated with increased odds of obesity (odds ratio (OR)=1.27; 95% CI 1.03, 1.57; P=0.03), as was age (OR=1.04; 95% CI 1.02, 1.06; P=0.001).ConclusionConditional cash transfers to poor women in Colombia are independently associated with increasing BMI and obesity risk. Although conditional cash transfers are generally regarded as popular and successful schemes, parallel interventions at individual, household and community level are needed to avoid unanticipated adverse outcomes.
| S-EPMC3378481 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study aimed to identify changes in food distribution operations at emergency food assistance organizations (EFAOs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. EFAOs across the Houston metro area, TX (human service centers and food pantries) as well as the Houston Food Bank (HFB) participated in the qualitative study. Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews and focus group (December 2020-February 2021), and coded using semi-structured thematic analysis. Categories were pre-identified based on the interview questions. Direct quotes supported subcategories. Directors from 18 EFAOs were interviewed; 8 HFB leadership staff participated in a focus group. Four major categories of change due to COVID-19 included new safety measures, changes in food distribution process, changes in volunteerism and staffing, and changes in amounts of food distributed. This study helps identify susceptibilities in EFAOs' food distribution chain should be addressed to manage future emergency food insecurity crises more effectively. An understanding of the changes/challenges incurred by EFAOs during the COVID-19 pandemic can inform policymakers to ensure local food distribution organizations are prepared to fill the needs during future a crisis of food insecurity.
| S-EPMC8703558 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Poverty is associated with poorer mental health in early adulthood. Cash transfers (CTs) have been shown to improve child health and education outcomes, but it is unclear whether these effects may translate into better mental health outcomes as children reach young adulthood. Using a quasi-experimental approach that exploits variation across countries in the timing of national CT programme introduction, we examine whether longer exposure to CTs during childhood (0-17 years) reduces depressive symptoms in early adulthood (18-30 years). Based on harmonized data from Colombia, Mexico, and South Africa (N = 14 431), we applied logistic regression models with country and birth-cohort fixed effects to estimate the impact of cumulative years of CT exposure on mental health, educational attainment, and employment outcomes. Our findings indicate that each additional year of CT exposure during childhood is associated with a 4% reduction in the odds of serious depressive symptoms in early adulthood [odds ratio (OR) = 0.96, 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 0.93, 0.98]. We find no consistent effect of years of exposure on completion of secondary school (OR = 1.01, 95% CIs: 0.99, 1.03) and a negative effect on the probability of employment in early adulthood (OR = 0.90, 95% CIs: 0.88, 0.91). These results suggest that longer exposure to CTs may contribute to modest but meaningful reductions in population-level depressive symptoms during early adulthood.
| S-EPMC11800976 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study provides detailed information on socially disadvantaged women and their households in Buenaventura, Colombia. A representative sample for 400 women aged between 18 and 70 was prepared and their living conditions were accessed based on the sociodemographic data and economic and social dynamics of their households. It gives special attention to access to poverty alleviation programs - conditional cash transfers - and forms of agency propelling women towards social change. The data were collected in July 2019 through in-person interviews. The database can greatly contribute toward further comparative research, informing public policy, and more broadly, widening the universe of statistical data on Colombia and other Latin American countries by providing quantitative data on welfare dependence, intragenerational pathways of social mobility, and changes in reproductive strategies and the political culture of women with respect to urban precarity. Fundación WWB Colombia and Universidad Icesi sponsored data collection as part of the project entitled "Analysis of the relationships between gender constructions and welfare programs in southwest Colombia".
| S-EPMC7509188 | biostudies-literature