IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v216y2023icp608-630.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impacts of cash transfers on mental health and investments: Experimental evidence from Mali

Author

Listed:
  • Hidrobo, Melissa
  • Karachiwalla, Naureen
  • Roy, Shalini

Abstract

Stress and cognitive burden associated with poverty constrain decision- making regarding investments in the future, which can in turn perpetuate poverty. We exploit the randomized roll-out of Mali's national cash transfer program to estimate its impact on measures of psychological and emotional well-being, time preferences, and cognitive function among households’ primary decision-makers. We find that receiving transfers reduced decision-makers’ self-reported stress and worry, as well as improved their self-esteem. The program did not affect measures of cognitive function but led to a modest increase in a measure of patience. Consistent with reduced stress, improved self-esteem, and increased patience, the program also increased investments in productive assets. Results suggest that, in addition to cash transfers providing the economic resources to support investments in the future, they may also build psycho-social well-being for supporting these investments.

Suggested Citation

  • Hidrobo, Melissa & Karachiwalla, Naureen & Roy, Shalini, 2023. "The impacts of cash transfers on mental health and investments: Experimental evidence from Mali," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 608-630.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:216:y:2023:i:c:p:608-630
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.10.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268123003700
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.10.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cash transfers; Mental health; Poverty; Investments; Mali;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:216:y:2023:i:c:p:608-630. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.