Do Medium-scale Farms Improve Market Access Conditions for Zambian Smallholders?
2019
This study is motivated by the need to understand how the rise of medium-scale farms in Africa is affecting small-scale farm households. Survey evidence over the past decade has shown a dramatic rise in the prevalence of ‘medium’ sized farms between 5 and 100 hectares, but smaller farms still constitute the vast majority of farms and rural households.
Causal pathways of the productive impacts of cash transfers: Experimental evidence from Lesotho
2018
This paper has the double aim to study whether unconditional cash transfers have an impact on farm production and to look into the causal mechanisms through which government transfers produce productive impacts. We use mediation analysis to identify the total effect of transfers on farm production and to isolate the influence of the labour channel from other transmission channels.
Knowing is half the battle: Seasonal forecasts, adaptive cropping systems, and the mediating role of private markets in Zambia
2018
This paper examines how smallholders living in regions where a drought is forecasted adapt their farm practices in response to receiving seasonal forecast information. The article draws on a unique longitudinal dataset in Zambia, which collected information from farm households before and after a significant drought caused by the 2015/2016 El-Niño Southern Oscillation.
The Household and Individual-Level Productive Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa
2018
This article brings together evidence from seven experimental and non-experimental impact evaluations of government-run unconditional cash transfer programs in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The unique focus on productive impacts of cash transfer programs was introduced into these evaluations by the From Protection to Production (PtoP) research project, itself part of the broader Transfer Project.
How much is too much: Does the size of income support transfers affect labor supply?
2018
Cash transfer programs pursue mainly protective objectives, but can also impact rural livelihoods by inducing investments in productive activities and changing household labor allocation. We adopt a continuous treatment approach to quantify how households’ labor supply responds to transfer size.
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Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa
2018
This paper summarizes evidence on six perceptions associated with cash transfer programming, using eight rigorous evaluations conducted on large-scale government unconditional cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa under the Transfer Project.
How Differences in Cash Transfer Sizes Affect Work Allocation Decisions: Evidence from Cross-Country Comparisons in SSA
2018
Over the past decade, several African governments have launched Cash Transfer (CT) programmes as part of their social protection systems, with the aim of reducing poverty. Such programmes can also have significant productive impacts.
One Plus One can be Greater than Two: Evaluating Synergies of Development Programmes in Malawi
2018
This paper investigates the interplay between the Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) and the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi. We take advantage of data collected from a 17-month evaluation of a sample of households eligible to receive SCTP, which also provided information about inclusion into FISP.
Cash Transfers and Gender Differentials in Child Schooling and Labor: Evidence from the Lesotho Child Grants Programme
2018
This article contributes to the literature on child well-being by examining gender-differentiated impacts on child schooling, labor, and time use by comparing impacts on outcomes for boys and girls across married male-headed households and de jure unmarried female-headed households, and by the sex of cash transfer recipients.