Can Cash Transfers Save Lives? Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment in Kenya

This study provides evidence on how large unconditional cash transfers affect child mortality. One-time transfers of $1,000 were given to over 10,500 poor households cluster-randomized across 653 villages in Kenya, with data collected on more than 100,000 births. The study finds striking impacts: infant mortality fell by 48%, and under-5 mortality fell by 45%. The reductions were largest for neonatal and maternal causes of death that are largely preventable with obstetric care, and were concentrated among poorer households. Transfers also led to a 45% increase in hospital deliveries, improved child nutrition, and short-term declines in maternal labor supply around childbirth. Effects dissipated after the program ended, but the findings suggest that unconditional cash transfers—though not designed for this purpose—may offer a cost-effective way to reduce child mortality in low-income settings. 

Co-authors: Michael Walker, Nick Shankar, Dennis Egger, Grady Killeen

This study is part of a larger project examining the General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers in Kenya. This earlier paper (with co-authors D. Egger, J. Haushofer, P. Niehaus and M. Walker) was published in Econometrica (2022) and was awarded the Econometric Society’s 2024 Frisch Medal for best applied paper published in Econometrica in the previous four years. 

Selected media coverage here on NPR, New York Times and The Economist

Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research

Recently, social science has seen numerous episodes of influential research that was found to be invalid when placed under rigorous scrutiny. Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research: How to Do Open Science is the first book to summarize and synthesize new approaches to combat false positives and non-reproducible findings in social science research, document the underlying problems in research practices, and teach a new generation of students and scholars how to overcome them. Created with both experienced and novice researchers in mind, Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research serves as an indispensable resource for the production of high quality social science research. The book was awarded the 2021 American Sociological Association Outstanding Publication Award – Methodology Section.

(Published by University of California Press in July 2019. Watch NBER Methods Lecture.)

Co-authors: Garret Christensen and Jeremy Freese.

Purchase via U.C. Press or Amazon.

Watch an economics professor explain foreign aid in 101 seconds

Edward Miguel, Faculty Co-Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), has made it his life’s work to figure out how to improve the lives of some of the poorest people on earth.

How foreign aid to treat neglected tropical diseases yields big economic returns

When former President Joe Biden announced his decision to donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccines to other countries in 2021, Edward Miguel called attention to another parallel opportunity that could improve the health and well-being of billions of people. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are among the most common illnesses affecting the world’s poorest people, and most can be prevented by inexpensive treatments, as little as 50 cents per child. Miguel points to his research on the impacts of a school-based deworming program in Kenya, which demonstrates how early childhood health interventions lead to large, sustained social and economic gains. He calls on the U.S. to push investment in widespread access to NTD treatments in order to overcome this global health challenge.

Read the article here.

TEDxBerkeley Talk – Climate, Conflict, and African Development

Talks at Google – Open Science: Assessing How to Do Good Better