[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v225y2019icp108-119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government of Malawi's unconditional cash transfer improves youth mental health

Author

Listed:
  • Angeles, Gustavo
  • de Hoop, Jacobus
  • Handa, Sudhanshu
  • Kilburn, Kelly
  • Milazzo, Annamaria
  • Peterman, Amber
Abstract
We explore the impacts of Malawi's national unconditional cash transfer program targeting ultra-poor households on youth mental health. Experimental findings show that the program significantly improved mental health outcomes. Among girls in particular, the program reduces indications of depression by about 15 percentage points. We investigate the contribution of different possible pathways to the overall program impact, including education, health, consumption, caregiver's stress levels and life satisfaction, perceived social support, and participation in hard and unpleasant work. The pathways explain from 46 to 65 percent of the program impact, advancing our understanding of how economic interventions can affect mental health of youth in resource-poor settings. The findings underline that unconditional cash grants, which are used on an increasingly large scale as part of national social protection systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, have the potential to improve youth mental wellbeing and thus may help break the vicious cycle of poverty and poor mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Angeles, Gustavo & de Hoop, Jacobus & Handa, Sudhanshu & Kilburn, Kelly & Milazzo, Annamaria & Peterman, Amber, 2019. "Government of Malawi's unconditional cash transfer improves youth mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 108-119.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:225:y:2019:i:c:p:108-119
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619300310
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rock, Amelia & Barrington, Clare & Abdoulayi, Sara & Tsoka, Maxton & Mvula, Peter & Handa, Sudhanshu, 2016. "Social networks, social participation, and health among youth living in extreme poverty in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 55-62.
    2. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    3. Jacobus de Hoop & Valeria Groppo & Sudhanshu Handa, 0. "Cash Transfers, Microentrepreneurial Activity, and Child Work: Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(3), pages 670-697.
    4. Sarah Baird & Jacobus de Hoop & Berk Özler, 2013. "Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(2), pages 370-403.
    5. McKenzie, David, 2012. "Beyond baseline and follow-up: The case for more T in experiments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 210-221.
    6. Keele, Luke & Tingley, Dustin & Teppei Yamamoto, "undated". "Identifying Mechanisms behind Policy Interventions via Causal Mediation Analysis," Working Paper 135661, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    7. Flores, Carlos A. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso, 2009. "Identification and Estimation of Causal Mechanisms and Net Effects of a Treatment under Unconfoundedness," IZA Discussion Papers 4237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. The Whoqol Group, 1998. "The World Health Organization quality of life assessment (WHOQOL): Development and general psychometric properties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(12), pages 1569-1585, June.
    9. Luke Keele & Dustin Tingley & Teppei Yamamoto, 2015. "Identifying Mechanisms Behind Policy Interventions Via Causal Mediation Analysis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 937-963, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huo, Xuan & Gao, Qin & Zhai, Fuhua & Lin, Mingang, 2020. "Effects of welfare entry and exit on adolescent mental health: Evidence from panel data in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    2. Maione, Carol, 2020. "Adapting to drought and extreme climate: Hunger Safety Net Programme, Kenya," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    3. Sharma, Smriti & Singhal, Saurabh & Tarp, Finn, 2021. "Corruption and mental health: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 125-137.
    4. Matthew W. Ridley & Gautam Rao & Frank Schilbach & Vikram H. Patel, 2020. "Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms," NBER Working Papers 27157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hizkia H. D. Tasik, 2020. "Can Energy Consumption and Benefit Programs Explain One s Living Standards Afterwards? Evidence from Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 43-50.
    6. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Nasir Iqbal & Saima Nawaz & Siew Ling Yew, 2024. "Do unconditional cash transfers increase fertility? Lessons from a large‐scale program," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 74-96, January.
    7. Francesco Bogliacino & Cristiano Codagnone & Frans Folkvord & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, 2023. "The impact of labour market shocks on mental health: evidence from the Covid-19 first wave," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 899-930, October.
    8. Lambon-Quayefio, Monica & Peterman, Amber & Handa, Sudhanshu & Molotsky, Adria & Otchere, Frank & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton & de Hoop, Jacobus & Angeles, Gustavo & Kilburn, Kelly & Milazzo, Annamar, 2024. "Unconditional cash transfers and safe transitions to adulthood in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    9. Nawaz, Saima & Iqbal, Nasir, 2020. "The impact of unconditional cash transfer on fuel choices among ultra-poor in Pakistan: Quasi-experimental evidence from the Benazir Income Support Program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    10. Kelly Kilburn & Lucia Ferrone & Audrey Pettifor & Ryan Wagner & F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé & Kathy Kahn, 2020. "The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer on Multidimensional Deprivation of Young Women: Evidence from South Africa’s HTPN 068," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 865-895, October.
    11. Andersen, Asbjørn G. & Kotsadam, Andreas & Somville, Vincent, 2022. "Material resources and well-being — Evidence from an Ethiopian housing lottery," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Hossain, Sheikh Jamal & Roy, Bharaty Rani & Sujon, Hasan Mahmud & Tran, Thach & Fisher, Jane & Tofail, Fahmida & El Arifeen, Shams & Hamadani, Jena Derakhshani, 2022. "Effects of integrated psychosocial stimulation (PS) and Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) on Children's development in rural Bangladesh: A cluster randomized controlled trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    13. Haushofer, Johannes & Chemin, Matthieu & Jang, Chaning & Abraham, Justin, 2020. "Economic and psychological effects of health insurance and cash transfers: Evidence from a randomized experiment in Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    14. Roelen, Keetie & Saha, Amrita, 2021. "Pathways to stronger futures? The role of social protection in reducing psychological risk factors for child development in Haiti," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    15. McGuire, Joel & Kaiser, Caspar & Bach-Mortensen, Anders, 2020. "The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis," SocArXiv ydr54, Center for Open Science.
    16. Nawaz, Saima & Iqbal, Nasir, 2021. "How cash transfers program affects environmental poverty among ultra-poor? Insights from the BISP in Pakistan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PB).
    17. Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal & Finn Tarp, 2020. "Corruption and mental health," Working Papers 296967914, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    18. Clotilde Mahé & Philipp Hessel, 2022. "School-age exposure to conditional cash transfers and adult mental health: Evidence from Mexico’s Progresa," Documentos de trabajo 20155, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    19. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Iqbal, Nasir & Nawaz, Saima & Yew, Siew Ling, 2024. "Unconditional cash transfers, health and savings," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    20. Kathryn L Falb & Alexandra H Blackwell & Julianne Stennes & Jeannie Annan, 2020. "Cash assistance programming and changes over time in ability to meet basic needs, food insecurity and depressive symptoms in Raqqa Governorate, Syria: Evidence from a mixed methods, pre-posttest," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kilburn, Kelly & Handa, Sudhanshu & Angeles, Gustavo & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton, 2017. "Short-term impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program on child schooling: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-80.
    2. Zietz, Susannah & de Hoop, Jacobus & Handa, Sudhanshu, 2018. "The role of productive activities in the lives of adolescents: Photovoice evidence from Malawi," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 246-255.
    3. Lambon-Quayefio, Monica & Peterman, Amber & Handa, Sudhanshu & Molotsky, Adria & Otchere, Frank & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton & de Hoop, Jacobus & Angeles, Gustavo & Kilburn, Kelly & Milazzo, Annamar, 2024. "Unconditional cash transfers and safe transitions to adulthood in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    4. Martin Huber & Mark Schelker & Anthony Strittmatter, 2022. "Direct and Indirect Effects based on Changes-in-Changes," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 432-443, January.
    5. Ohrnberger, Julius & Anselmi, Laura & Fichera, Eleonora & Sutton, Matt, 2020. "The effect of cash transfers on mental health: Opening the black box – A study from South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    6. Helmut Farbmacher & Martin Huber & Lukáš Lafférs & Henrika Langen & Martin Spindler, 2022. "Causal mediation analysis with double machine learning [Mediation analysis via potential outcomes models]," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(2), pages 277-300.
    7. Martin Huber & Lukáš Lafférs, 2022. "Bounds on direct and indirect effects under treatment/mediator endogeneity and outcome attrition," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(10), pages 1141-1163, November.
    8. Viviana Celli, 2022. "Causal mediation analysis in economics: Objectives, assumptions, models," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 214-234, February.
    9. Fabian Kosse & Thomas Deckers & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Armin Falk, 2020. "The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(2), pages 434-467.
    10. Marshall Burke & Lauren Falcao Bergquist & Edward Miguel, 2019. "Sell Low and Buy High: Arbitrage and Local Price Effects in Kenyan Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 785-842.
    11. Nicholas Bloom & Benn Eifert & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2013. "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 1-51.
    12. Damien de Walque & Christine Valente, 2023. "Incentivizing School Attendance in the Presence of Parent-Child Information Frictions," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 256-285, August.
    13. Walters, Glenn D. & Mandracchia, Jon T., 2017. "Testing criminological theory through causal mediation analysis: Current status and future directions," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 53-64.
    14. Gabriela Calderon & Jesse M. Cunha & Giacomo De Giorgi, 2020. "Business Literacy and Development: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 507-540.
    15. Guido Neidhöfer & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "The Long(er)‐Term Impacts of Chile Solidario on Human Capital and Labor Income," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 209-244, December.
    16. Dennis Egger & Johannes Haushofer & Edward Miguel & Paul Niehaus & Michael Walker, 2022. "General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence From Kenya," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(6), pages 2603-2643, November.
    17. Guido Neidhöfer & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "The Long(er)‐Term Impacts of Chile Solidario on Human Capital and Labor Income," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 209-244, December.
    18. Hernandez, Manuel A. & Torero, Maximo, 2018. "A poverty-sensitive scorecard to prioritize lending and grant allocation: Evidence from Central America," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 81-90.
    19. Islam, Asad & Nguyen, Chau, 2018. "Do networks matter after a natural disaster? A study of resource sharing within an informal network after Cyclone Aila," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 249-268.
    20. Mochamad Pasha & Marc Rockmore & Chih Ming Tan & Dhanushka Thamarapani, 2023. "Early Life Exposure to Above Average Rainfall and Adult Mental Health," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(4), pages 692-717, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:225:y:2019:i:c:p:108-119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.