Conditional cash transfers improve child health outcomes in the short term and can improve educational outcomes in the longer term
Read "Using cash transfers to improve child health in low- and middle-income countries," a J-PAL Policy Insight, here.
Children in low-income countries are twelve times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children in high-income countries. In this VoxDevTalk, Anupama Dathan discusses how evidence from 13 low- and middle-income countries shows that cash transfer programmes conditional on the use of health products and services such as preventive care visits and immunisation generally increase uptake and improve child health outcomes in the short term and can improve cognition and educational outcomes in the longer term. Cash transfers without these conditions are spent according to their current household priorities, which may not necessarily include preventive child health. While such transfers can have important non-health benefits, their effect on child health depends on the context and is typically smaller than that of conditional transfers.
