Are Behavioral Change Interventions Needed to Make Cash Transfer Programs Work for Children? Experimental Evidence from Myanmar

Erica Field and Elisa M. Maffioli

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2025, vol. 73, issue 3, 1187 - 1220

Abstract: We experimentally evaluate the effect on child malnutrition of a maternal cash transfer program in Myanmar that was supplemented with social behavior change communication (SBCC) in a subset of villages. The combination of interventions significantly reduced stunting, while cash alone had no effect on stunting. SBCC appears to have worked in conjunction with cash to reduce stunting by encouraging mothers to increase children’s dietary diversity, in particular proteins consumed. The findings underscore the importance of adding SBCC to cash transfer programs.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/730631 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/730631 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/730631

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development and Cultural Change from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().