Information on raising children is more important in the first two years of a child’s life, whereas cash plays a bigger role from age 2 to 4
Policymakers are increasingly interested in the returns to early-childhood investments. To fill that information gap, a development research programme in Nigeria provided parents with information on raising their children, and mothers with a large, unconditional cash transfer for over two years. After four years, they are able to compare the relative advantages of cash transfers and information provision. They find that cash transfers become more important after the first two years of the child’s life, after the parents have utilised information on raising their children in the first two years.