Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Household Welfare in Southern Ethiopia: A matching estimator approach

Cash transfers (CTs) are now high on the agenda of most governments in low- and middle-income countries. Chronic food insecurity is one of the problems that has plagued millions of Ethiopians for centuries. This study evaluated the impact of participation in the conditional cash transfer (CCT) component of the PSNP (Public Works or PW) on household welfare in Karat Zuria District, Konso Zone, Southern Ethiopia. The cross-sectional survey data was gathered from 244 sample households, which were taken from beneficiary and control groups by using a multistage sampling procedure. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to evaluate the program's impact on livestock holdings and total income. The result obtained from logit regression indicated that participation in a conditional cash transfer program was negatively influenced by access to credit and cultivated land size, whereas it was positively influenced by shock experience and an iron-roofed house. The econometrics model result shows that, as compared to control households, the program intervention increased the beneficiary households’ livestock holding (measured in TLU) by 24.8 percent (0.53 TLU) and total income by 33 percent (1705.095 ETB), respectively. This study demonstrated how the program had a considerable impact on household livestock holdings and total income.