Poor Households' Productive Investments of Cash Transfers
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World Bank, Washington, DC
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Cash transfer programs have spread
rapidly as an instrument to raise household consumption and
reduce poverty. Questions remain about the sustainability of
cash transfer impacts in low-income settings such as
Sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, on whether cash
transfers can foster productive investments in addition to
raising immediate consumption among the very poor. This
paper presents evidence that a cash transfer project in
rural Niger induced investments in assets and productive
activities that were sustained among the very poor 18 months
after project completion. Results show lasting increases in
livestock assets and participation in saving groups
(tontines). Cash transfers also contributed to improved
agricultural productivity, but no effects in terms of
diversification of other household enterprises are found.
Productive asset gains are, notably, largest among the
poorest of the poor, suggesting that small regular cash
transfers combined with enhanced saving mechanisms can relax
constraints to asset accumulation among the extreme poor.
Palabras clave
cash transfers, productive assets, investment, poverty, consumption, savings groups