Shortening the path to productive investment: Evidence from input fairs and cash transfers in Malawi

Shilpa Aggarwal, Dahyeon Jeong, Naresh Kumar, David Sungho Park, Jonathan Robinson and Alan Spearot

Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol. 170, issue C

Abstract: While cash transfers consistently show large effects on immediate outcomes like consumption, limited access to markets may mute their impact on productive investment. In an experiment in Malawi, we cross-cut cash transfers with an “input fair”, designed to reduce transport costs to access agricultural inputs. Cash alone increases investment by 27%, while the joint provision of cash and the input fair increases investment by about 40%; thus, the incremental effect of the input fair is equivalent to about a 50% increase compared to the effect of cash alone. Input fairs alone were ineffective.

Keywords: Cash transfers; Market access; Productive investment; FISP; Input fairs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Shortening the Path to Productive Investment: Evidence from Input Fairs and Cash Transfers in Malawi (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:170:y:2024:i:c:s0304387824000373

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103288

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