Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper reports the results of two 2-year randomized control trials in two poor rural areas of Bangladesh. Treatment arms included monthly cash transfers, monthly food rations of equivalent value to the cash transfers, and mixed monthly cash and food transfers, and treatment arms—one with food an...

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Autores principales: Ahmed, Akhter, Hoddinott, John F., Roy, Shalini
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144145
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author Ahmed, Akhter
Hoddinott, John F.
Roy, Shalini
author_browse Ahmed, Akhter
Hoddinott, John F.
Roy, Shalini
author_facet Ahmed, Akhter
Hoddinott, John F.
Roy, Shalini
author_sort Ahmed, Akhter
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper reports the results of two 2-year randomized control trials in two poor rural areas of Bangladesh. Treatment arms included monthly cash transfers, monthly food rations of equivalent value to the cash transfers, and mixed monthly cash and food transfers, and treatment arms—one with food and one with cash—that combined transfers with nutrition-behavior communication change (BCC). This design enables a comparison of transfer modalities within the same experiment. Intent-to-treat estimators show that cash transfers and nutrition BCC had a large impact on nutritional status, a 0.25 standard deviation increase in height-for-age z-scores and a 7.8 percentage point decrease in stunting prevalence. No other treatment arm affected anthropometric outcomes. Mechanisms underlying these impacts are explored. Improved diets—particularly increased intake of animal source foods in the cash plus BCC arm—are consistent with the improvements observed in this paper.
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spelling CGSpace1441452025-10-26T12:55:36Z Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh Ahmed, Akhter Hoddinott, John F. Roy, Shalini cash transfers human behaviour child nutrition social protection rural areas stunting food assistance This paper reports the results of two 2-year randomized control trials in two poor rural areas of Bangladesh. Treatment arms included monthly cash transfers, monthly food rations of equivalent value to the cash transfers, and mixed monthly cash and food transfers, and treatment arms—one with food and one with cash—that combined transfers with nutrition-behavior communication change (BCC). This design enables a comparison of transfer modalities within the same experiment. Intent-to-treat estimators show that cash transfers and nutrition BCC had a large impact on nutritional status, a 0.25 standard deviation increase in height-for-age z-scores and a 7.8 percentage point decrease in stunting prevalence. No other treatment arm affected anthropometric outcomes. Mechanisms underlying these impacts are explored. Improved diets—particularly increased intake of animal source foods in the cash plus BCC arm—are consistent with the improvements observed in this paper. 2025-05-01 2024-05-29T16:50:00Z 2024-05-29T16:50:00Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144145 en Open Access Oxford University Press Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; and Roy, Shalini. 2025. Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh. World Bank Economic Review 39(2): 439–472. https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae023
spellingShingle cash transfers
human behaviour
child nutrition
social protection
rural areas
stunting
food assistance
Ahmed, Akhter
Hoddinott, John F.
Roy, Shalini
Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_full Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_fullStr Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_short Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_sort food transfers cash transfers behavior change communication and child nutrition evidence from bangladesh
topic cash transfers
human behaviour
child nutrition
social protection
rural areas
stunting
food assistance
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144145
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AT royshalini foodtransferscashtransfersbehaviorchangecommunicationandchildnutritionevidencefrombangladesh