IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v32y2023i9p2127-2146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the Mamata conditional cash transfer program on child nutrition in Odisha, India

Author

Listed:
  • Vedavati Patwardhan

Abstract

Based on a triple difference estimation, this paper shows that the impact of a universal cash transfer on child nutrition differs by household wealth. In 2011, Odisha state in India introduced a conditional maternal cash transfer named “Mamata Scheme”. Using data from the National Family Health Survey, I find that the program reduced child wasting by 7 percentage points, a 39% reduction compared to the average prevalence of wasting in the pre‐program period. The reduction in child wasting is driven by children from households in the top four of five national wealth quintiles, for whom the program reduced wasting by 13 percentage points or a reduction of about 80%. Children from households in the bottom wealth quintile were 13 percentage points more likely to suffer from wasting than their wealthier counterparts. Reduction in stunting is also limited to children from households in the top four wealth quintiles, with an average program effect of 12 percentage points, that is, a 40% reduction. The results suggest that access to universal cash benefit schemes is important for mothers and children from marginalized households to realize proportionate benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Vedavati Patwardhan, 2023. "The impact of the Mamata conditional cash transfer program on child nutrition in Odisha, India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 2127-2146, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:32:y:2023:i:9:p:2127-2146
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4720
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4720
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4720?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miller, Candace M. & Tsoka, Maxton & Reichert, Kathryn, 2011. "The impact of the Social Cash Transfer Scheme on food security in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 230-238, April.
    2. Jorge M. Aguero & Michael R. Carter & Ingrid Woolard, 2006. "The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant," SALDRU Working Papers 8, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Paula von Haaren & Stefan Klonner, 2021. "Lessons learned? Intended and unintended effects of India's second‐generation maternal cash transfer scheme," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2468-2486, September.
    4. Karthik Muralidharan & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 321-350, July.
    5. Ferre, Celine & Sharif, Iffath, 2014. "Can conditional cash transfers improve education and nutrition outcomes for poor children in Bangladesh ? evidence from a pilot project," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7077, The World Bank.
    6. Norbert Schady & Ariel Fiszbein & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Niall Keleher & Margaret Grosh & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597.
    7. Chari, A.V. & Glick, Peter & Okeke, Edward & Srinivasan, Sinduja V., 2019. "Workfare and infant health: Evidence from India's public works program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 116-134.
    8. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    9. Thomas, Deborah & Sarangi, Biraj Laxmi & Garg, Anu & Ahuja, Arti & Meherda, Pramod & Karthikeyan, Sujata R. & Joddar, Pinaki & Kar, Rajendra & Pattnaik, Jeetendra & Druvasula, Ramesh & Dembo Rath, Ali, 2015. "Closing the health and nutrition gap in Odisha, India: A case study of how transforming the health system is achieving greater equity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 154-162.
    10. Joshi, Shareen & Sivaram, Anusuya, 2014. "Does it Pay to Deliver? An Evaluation of India’s Safe Motherhood Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 434-447.
    11. Hoyt Bleakley, 2010. "Health, Human Capital, and Development," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 283-310, September.
    12. Avula, Rasmi & Nguyen, Phuong & Mishra, Nihar & Mitra, Devjit & Kohli, Neha & Menon, Purnima, 2020. "Tackling nutrition in Odisha: Looking back, looking forward," POSHAN reports 11, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Christina Paxson & Norbert Schady, 2010. "Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Development in Rural Ecuador," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(1), pages 187-229, October.
    14. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G. & King, Elizabeth M., 2001. "Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 345-368, September.
    15. Seema Jayachandran & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2600-2629, September.
    16. Sudhanshu Handa & Amber Peterman & David Seidenfeld & Gelson Tembo, 2016. "Income Transfers and Maternal Health: Evidence from a National Randomized Social Cash Transfer Program in Zambia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 225-236, February.
    17. Maria Teresa Solis-Soto & Deepak Paudel & Francesco Nicoli, 2020. "Relationship between vaccination and nutritional status in children: Analysis of recent Demographic and Health Surveys," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(1), pages 1-14.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Groot & Tia Palermo & Sudhanshu Handa & Luigi Peter Ragno & Amber Peterman, 2017. "Themed Issue: Cash Transfers and Microfinance," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(5), pages 621-643, September.
    2. Stephen Smith, 2018. "Development Economics Meets the Challenges of Lagging U.S. Areas: Applications to Education, Health and Nutrition, Behavior, and Infrastructure," Working Papers 2018-7, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    3. Pei‐An Liao & Hung‐Hao Chang & Yi‐Ju Su, 2020. "Cash transfer program and child underweight—Empirical evidence from a causal mediation analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(2), pages 291-303, March.
    4. Ito, Takahiro & Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2018. "Abolishing user fees, fertility choice, and educational attainment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 33-44.
    5. Thomas Buser & Hessel Oosterbeek & Erik Plug & Juan Ponce & José Rosero, 2017. "The Impact of Positive and Negative Income Changes on the Height and Weight of Young Children," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 786-808.
    6. Paul Christian & Brian Dillon, 2018. "Growing and Learning When Consumption Is Seasonal: Long-Term Evidence From Tanzania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(3), pages 1091-1118, June.
    7. Dena Ringold & Bénédicte de la Brière & Dominic Rohner & Deon Filmer & Karelle Samuda & Anastasiya Denisova, 2017. "From Mines and Wells to Well-Built Minds," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 26490.
    8. Cooper, Jan E. & Benmarhnia, Tarik & Koski, Alissa & King, Nicholas B., 2020. "Cash transfer programs have differential effects on health: A review of the literature from low and middle-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    9. Günther Fink & Peter C. Rockers, 2017. "Financial Incentives, Targeting, and Utilization of Child Health Services: Experimental Evidence from Zambia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1307-1321, October.
    10. Heather Congdon Fors & Annika Lindskog, 2023. "Son preference and education Inequalities in India: the role of gender-biased fertility strategies and preferential treatment of boys," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1431-1460, July.
    11. James Manley & Vanya Slavchevska, 2019. "Are cash transfers the answer for child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa? A literature review," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(2), pages 204-224, March.
    12. Jose Cuesta & Mario Negre & Ana Revenga & Maika Schmidt, 2018. "Tackling Income Inequality: What Works and Why?," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 26(1), pages 1-48, March.
    13. Independent Evaluation Group, 2014. "Social Safety Nets and Gender : Learning from Impact Evaluations and World Bank Projects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21365.
    14. repec:cdl:econwp:qt565889qz is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Sudhanshu Handa & David Seidenfeld & Benjamin Davis & Gelson Tembo & Zambia Cash Transfer Evaluation Team, 2016. "The Social and Productive Impacts of Zambia's Child Grant," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 357-387, April.
    16. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Kotschy, Rainer & Prettner, Klaus & Schünemann, Johannes, 2024. "Health and economic growth: Reconciling the micro and macro evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    17. Heather Congdon Fors & Annika Lindskog, 2023. "Within‐family inequalities in human capital accumulation in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 3-28, February.
    18. Wells Thomas R., 2019. "Just End Poverty Now: The Case for a Global Minimum Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Zenou, Yves & Hahn, Youjin & Hassani-Mahmooei, behrooz & Islam, Asad & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2016. "Do Friends Improve Female Education? The Case of Bangladesh," CEPR Discussion Papers 11615, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Bernardus Van Doornik & David Schoenherr & Janis Skrastins, 2025. "Escaping Death: individual mobility and female mortality," Working Papers Series 621, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.

    More about this item

    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:wly:hlthec:v:32:y:2023:i:9:p:2127-2146. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.