The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 105 No. 2 2023
Cash Transfers, Food Prices, and Nutrition Impacts on Ineligible Children
Abstract
Can cash aid harm nonrecipients by raising local prices? We show that a household-targeted cash transfer in the Philippines increases the prices of perishable foods in some markets and raises stunting among nonbeneficiary children by 11 percentage points (34%). Impacts increase in the size of the village income shock and remoteness---and are sustained two and a half years after program introduction. Price effects from an experimental sample are confirmed with national expenditure surveys collected during program scale-up. Household-targeted cash transfers can thus generate local spillovers that undermine program goals. Selected geographic targeting may avoid price spillovers at moderate additional cost.
- DOI
- 10.1162/rest_a_01061
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 327-343
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex