Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Despite recent calls in support of cash transfers, there is little rigorous evidence of the relative impacts of cash versus in-kind transfers, especially in humanitarian contexts, where a majority of such programs take place. This paper uses data from a randomized experiment in the Democratic Republ...
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30128 |
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okr-10986-301282021-05-25T10:54:40Z Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo Aker, Jenny C. CASH TRANSFERS IN-KIND TRANSFERS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL SAFETY NETS CONFLICT VOUCHERS Despite recent calls in support of cash transfers, there is little rigorous evidence of the relative impacts of cash versus in-kind transfers, especially in humanitarian contexts, where a majority of such programs take place. This paper uses data from a randomized experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo to assess the relative impacts and costs of equivalently valued cash and voucher transfers. The voucher program distorted households' purchases along both the extensive and intensive margin as compared with unconstrained cash households. Yet there were no differences in food consumption or other measures of well-being, in part due to the fact that voucher households were able to resell part of what they purchased. As there were no significant benefits to vouchers, cash transfers were the more cost effective modality for both the implementing agency and program recipients in this context. 2018-08-03T19:00:13Z 2018-08-03T19:00:13Z 2017-02 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30128 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Congo, Democratic Republic of |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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CASH TRANSFERS IN-KIND TRANSFERS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL SAFETY NETS CONFLICT VOUCHERS |
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CASH TRANSFERS IN-KIND TRANSFERS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL SAFETY NETS CONFLICT VOUCHERS Aker, Jenny C. Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Congo, Democratic Republic of |
| description |
Despite recent calls in support of cash transfers, there is little rigorous evidence of the relative impacts of cash versus in-kind transfers, especially in humanitarian contexts, where a majority of such programs take place. This paper uses data from a randomized experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo to assess the relative impacts and costs of equivalently valued cash and voucher transfers. The voucher program distorted households' purchases along both the extensive and intensive margin as compared with unconstrained cash households. Yet there were no differences in food consumption or other measures of well-being, in part due to the fact that voucher households were able to resell part of what they purchased. As there were no significant benefits to vouchers, cash transfers were the more cost effective modality for both the implementing agency and program recipients in this context. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Aker, Jenny C. |
| author_facet |
Aker, Jenny C. |
| author_sort |
Aker, Jenny C. |
| title |
Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| title_short |
Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| title_full |
Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| title_fullStr |
Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context : Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo |
| title_sort |
comparing cash and voucher transfers in a humanitarian context : evidence from the democratic republic of congo |
| publisher |
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30128 |
| _version_ |
1764471278567161856 |