Feed Thy Neighbour: How Social Ties Shape Spillover Effects of Cash Transfers on Food Security and Nutrition

Alessandro Carraro and Lucia Ferrone

Journal of African Economies, 2024, vol. 33, issue 2, 130-166

Abstract: Economic development in Sub Saharan African countries is strongly tied to households' ability to cope with exogenous events affecting their well-being. Using data from the Lesotho Child Grant Program (CGP) we provide evidence on the presence of any spillover effect of the program on non-eligible households living in treated villages and whether households' food security and nutrition are influenced by the presence of a particular network structure. We take advantage of information on each household's received and disbursed monetary transfers to build a set of indicators representing quantitatively and qualitatively the network architecture of each household. We find relevant spillover effects of the CGP on the food security and nutrition of non-eligible households living in treated villages and embedded in a social network. Geographical proximity seems to be strongly tied to positive spillover effects for food security and access to food.

Keywords: Lesotho; food and nutrition security; randomised control trial experiment; informal networks; cash transfers; JEL classification: N57; R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Working Paper: Feed Thy Neighbour: how Social Ties shape Spillover Effects of Cash Transfers on Food Security and Nutrition (2019)
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