Do Behavioral Interventions Enhance the Effects of Cash on Early Childhood Development and Its Determinants? Evidence from a Cluster-Randomized Trial in Madagascar

There is growing interest in how best to leverage cash transfers to foster positive impact on children in beneficiary households. We evaluate the effects of interventions based on behavioral science on measures of early childhood socio-cognitive development (and related household-level outcomes) for children from households receiving cash transfers in Madagascar using a multi-arm cluster-randomized trial, where communities were randomized into arms, with 77 communities in each arm and approximately 950 and 1200 households sampled at baseline and midline, respectively. Three behavioral interventions (a ‘Mother Leaders’ group, either by itself or augmented with a ‘self-affirmation’ or a ‘plan-making’ nudge) are layered onto a child-focused cash transfer program targeting the rural poor in Madagascar with children aged 0–6. Approximately 18 months into the implementation of these interventions, we find evidence that households in the behaviorally enhanced arms undertake more desirable parenting behaviors, interact more with their children, prepare more (and more diverse) meals at home, and report lower food insecurity than households that received only cash, and children in these arms perform better than children from households in the cash-only arm on several measures of socio-cognitive development including language learning and social skills. This is promising evidence that behavioral interventions can add significant value to cash transfer programs that aim to improve human development outcomes. (AEARCTR-0000957).