Transfers, nutrition programming, and economic well-being: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

Akhter Ahmed (), John Hoddinott, Shalini Roy and Esha Sraboni

No 1879, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Interest has grown in leveraging cash transfer programs with nutrition interventions to improve child nutrition at scale. However, little is known about how doing so affects household economic well-being. We study a program providing cash or food transfers, with or without nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), to poor women in rural Bangladesh. We find that adding BCC to cash or food transfers leads to larger impacts on both consumption and assets - an apparent puzzle, given the transfer value is unchanged. Evidence suggests this occurs through the BCC inducing increases in income generation - plausibly by improving households’ social capital and empowerment.

Keywords: social capital; behavioural sciences; social protection; empowerment; nutrition; economics; assets; children; livelihoods; food security; cash transfers; behaviour; communication; Bangladesh; Southern Asia; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146009

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Journal Article: Transfers, nutrition programming, and economic well-being: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1879

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