Cash Transfers, Food Prices, and Nutrition Impacts on Nonbeneficiary Children

Filmer, Deon ; Friedman, Jed ; Kandpal, Eeshani ; Onishi, Junko

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: NUTRITION;    CASH TRANSFERS;    FOOD PRICES;    GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM EFFECTS;    SPILLOVER EFFECT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8377
RP-ID  :  WPS8377

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Cash transfer programs may generatesignificant general equilibrium effects that can detractfrom the anti-poverty goals of the program. Data from arandomized evaluation of a Philippine cash transfer programtargeted to poor households show that a 9 percent increasein village income significantly raised the prices ofperishable protein-rich foods while leaving other foodprices unaffected. The price changes are largest in areaswith the highest program saturation, where the shock tovillage income is on the order of 15 percent and persistsmore than 2.5 years after program introduction. Althoughsignificantly improving nutrition related outcomes amongbeneficiary children, the cash transfer worsened those sameindicators among non-beneficiary children. The stunting rateof young non-beneficiary children increased by elevenpercentage points, with even greater increases in the mostsaturated areas. Another potentially related spilloverarises in local health markets: formal health careutilization by mothers and children also declined amongnon-beneficiary households. Failing to consider such localgeneral equilibrium effects can overstate the net benefit oftargeted cash transfers. In areas where individual targetingof social programs covers the majority of households,offering the program on a universal basis should avoid suchnegative impacts at little additional cost.