Jenny C. Aker (Tufts University) Cash Transfers, Home Production and the Dynamics of Household Food Security: Evidence From Rural Liberia and Malawi.

We evaluate a program to provide large, unconditional cash transfers (worth $500 on average) in 600 villages in rural Liberia and Malawi. We utilize bi-monthly phone surveys to estimate the time-varying effects of the transfers, focusing primarily on food security. In Malawi, food security improves by 0.5 standard deviations immediately post-disbursement, but then attenuates to about 0.15 standard deviations; however, this increase persists for over 2 years post-disbursement. In Liberia, we find an immediate increase of about 0.25 standard deviations, and no evidence of a decline for the first year after disbursement. These results are supported by an in-person endline survey conducted 1.5-2 years after disbursement, which shows improvements in assets, psycho-social well-being, household resilience, and intimate partner violence. However, we find no effect on food expenditures or on measured non-agricultural income. Our evidence suggests that improvements in food security were driven by home production from investments in animal assets.