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Cash transfers, climatic shocks and resilience in the Sahel

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Premand
  • Quentin Stoeffler

    (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Policy makers search for strategies to promote resilience and mitigate the effects of future climatic shocks. In this paper, we assess whether small regular cash transfers strengthen poor households' ability to mitigate the welfare effects of drought shocks. We analyze mechanisms through which cash transfers contribute to resilience, including savings, asset accumulation as well as income smoothing in agriculture and off-farm activities. We combine household survey data collected as part of a randomized control trial in rural Niger with satellite data used to identify exogenous rainfall shocks. The results show that cash transfers increase household consumption by about 10 percent on average. Importantly, this increase is mostly concentrated among households affected by drought shocks, for whom welfare impacts are larger than transfer amounts due to households' enhanced ability to protect earnings in agriculture and off-farm businesses when shocks occur. The results suggest that multi-year cash transfer programs can foster poor households' resilience by facilitating savings and income smoothing.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Premand & Quentin Stoeffler, 2022. "Cash transfers, climatic shocks and resilience in the Sahel," Post-Print hal-03891494, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03891494
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102744
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chistophe Muller & Nouréini Sayouti Souleymane, 2025. "Perverse Impact of Agro-Pastoral Policies on the Dietary Intake of Agro-Pastoralists," AMSE Working Papers 2508, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    2. Lee, Seungmin & Abay, Kibrom A. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Hoddinott, John, 2026. "Estimating multidimensional development resilience," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Nicola Favretto & Lindsay C. Stringer, 2024. "Climate resilient development in vulnerable geographies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 29(8), pages 1-32, December.
    4. Patrick Premand & Dominic Rohner, 2024. "Cash and Conflict: Large-Scale Experimental Evidence from Niger," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 137-153, March.
    5. Scognamillo, Antonio & Song, Chun & Ignaciuk, Adriana, 2023. "No man is an Island: A spatially explicit approach to measure development resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. Pople, Ashley Charlotte & Premand, Patrick & Dercon,Stefan & Vinez, Margaux & Brunelin, Stephanie, 2025. "The Earlier the Better? Cash Transfers for Drought Response in Niger," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11138, The World Bank.
    7. Beuermann, Diether W. & Hoffmann, Bridget & Stampini, Marco & Vargas, David L. & Vera-Cossio, Diego, 2025. "Shooting a moving target: Evaluating targeting tools for social programs when income fluctuates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Fiala, Nathan & Rose, Julian & Aryemo, Filder & Peters, Jörg, 2022. "The (very) long-run impacts of cash grants during a crisis," Ruhr Economic Papers 961, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Kalle Hirvonen & Patricia Justino & Rodrigo Oliveira, 2024. "The role of social assistance in African crises: a systematic literature review," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-79, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Enrico Nichelatti & Abrams M.E. Tagem, 2025. "Surviving the storm: how climate-related disasters reshape tax morale in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2025-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Fiala, Nathan & Rose, Julian & Aryemo, Filder & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2025. "Timing matters: The (very) long-run impacts of cash grants during a crisis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    12. repec:osf:osfxxx:rdjn9_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Gregory Lane, 2024. "Adapting to Climate Risk With Guaranteed Credit: Evidence From Bangladesh," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(2), pages 355-386, March.
    14. Rexer,Jonah Matthew & Sharma,Siddharth, 2024. "Climate Change Adaptation : What Does the Evidence Say ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10729, The World Bank.
    15. Kouandou, Arouna & Zeh, Inès Pérolde, 2024. "Insuring consumption against Shocks: The role of informal savings in Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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