Research

General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker
2022
African DevelopmentOtherResearch Methodology
ecta200500.pdf

Egger, Dennis, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker. (2022). “General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya”, Econometrica, 90 (6): 2603-2643, doi: 10.3982/ECTA17945.

How large economic stimuli generate individual and aggregate responses is a central question in economics, but has not been studied experimentally. We provided one-time cash transfers of about USD 1000 to over 10,500 poor households across 653 randomized villages in rural Kenya. The implied fiscal shock was over 15 percent of local GDP. We find large impacts on consumption and assets for recipients. Importantly, we document large positive spillovers on non-recipient households and firms, and minimal price inflation. We estimate a local transfer multiplier of 2.5. We interpret welfare
implications through the lens of a simple household optimization framework.

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