Alternative Cash Transfer Delivery Mechanisms: Impacts on Routine Preventative Health Clinic Visits in Burkina Faso

Richard Akresh (), Damien de Walque and Harounan Kazianga

No 6321, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We conducted a unique randomized experiment to estimate the impact of alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on household demand for routine preventative health services in rural Burkina Faso. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional or unconditional and the money was given to either mothers or fathers. Families enrolled in the conditional cash transfer schemes were required to obtain quarterly child growth monitoring at local health clinics for all children under five years old. There was not such a requirement under the unconditional programs. Compared with control group households, conditional cash transfers significantly increase the number of preventative health care visits during the previous year, while unconditional cash transfers did not have such an impact. For the conditional cash transfers, money given to mothers or fathers showed beneficial impacts of similar magnitude in increasing routine visits.

Keywords: gender; conditionality; cash transfers; child health; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I38 J13 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published - published in: NBER African Successes: Human Capital, volume 2. 2016. Editors, S. Edwards, S. Johnson, D. Weil, University of Chicago Press.

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Related works:
Chapter: Alternative Cash Transfer Delivery Mechanisms: Impacts on Routine Preventative Health Clinic Visits in Burkina Faso (2014)
Working Paper: Alternative Cash Transfer Delivery Mechanisms: Impacts on Routine Preventative Health Clinic Visits in Burkina Faso (2012)
Working Paper: Alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms: impacts on routine preventative health clinic visits in Burkina Faso (2012)
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