Research at GiveDirectly

We use rigorous experimental research (randomized controlled trials) to measure our impact and answer public policy questions.

Experimental evaluations

Rigorous, experimental evaluation is rare among nonprofits. GiveDirectly collaborates with a wide range of leading independent researchers to measure the impacts of cash transfers and answer complex design questions through more than a dozen randomized controlled trials. We report the results of our evaluations and also announce studies in progress before the data are in, so that we can be held accountable for the results. We also run smaller, non-experimental tests to learn more about what works best and how different types of recipients spend funds they receive.

Published randomized controlled trial studies

The impact of unconditional cash transfers on poor households in rural Kenya

Researchers: Johannes Haushofer (Princeton) and Jeremy Shapiro (Princeton) with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action

Location: Siaya County, Kenya

Overview: The study documented large, positive impacts of cash transfers averaging ~$500 across a wide range of outcomes including assets, earnings, food security, psychological well-being, and domestic violence, an average four months after transfers ended. It also examined a number of design questions such as how to size transfers and whether to give them to men or women. A second endline survey >2 years after the end of transfers found “cash transfers result in sustained increases in assets. Long-term impacts on other dimensions, and potential spillover effects, remain to be substantiated by future work.” Read more here.

Registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Peer-reviewed paper (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016); working papers published on psychological well-being for non-recipients (2019), domestic violence (2019) nutrition poverty traps (2019), and second endline survey findings (2018)

Media and blogs: First endline: NPR, The Economist, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Fast Company; Psychological wellbeing for non-recipients: Vox; Second endline: GiveDirectly, study authors, Berk Ozler, Justin Sandefur; Domestic violence: Fast Company

Benchmarking a traditional nutrition and WASH program to cash

Researchers: Craig McIntosh (UCSD), Andrew Zeitlin (Georgetown) with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action

Location: Kayonza and Nyabihu districts, Rwanda

Overview: The study explored the cost-effectiveness (impact per dollar) of unconditional cash transfers and of Gikuriro, an integrated nutrition program. It found that neither the traditional program nor cost-equivalent cash transfers of ~$110 affected the study’s primary outcomes, but a larger cash transfer of ~$532 improved consumption, dietary diversity, and childhood growth 12 months after the baseline survey. For secondary outcomes studied, the smaller cash transfer program decreased debt and increased assets, while the nutrition program increased savings.

Registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Working paper and IPA policy brief published in 2018

Media and blogs: Washington Post, New York Times, Vox, Quartz, NPR, Wired, Center for Global Development, GiveDirectly, study authors, Berk Ozler, Jason Kerwin, Non-Profit Chronicles, Chicago Policy Review, Lee Crawfurd

Transfers to coffee-farming communities

Researchers: IDinsight and GiveDirectly

Location: Iganga district, Uganda

Overview: The study evaluated the impact of $1,000 cash transfers to Ugandan communities where coffee-farming is common. It found that consumption, assets, food security, and earnings all increased for both coffee farmers and households that don’t produce coffee. Coffee farmers increased their investment in coffee farming, as well as in other livelihoods.

Study registration: RIDIE registry entry

Status: Study report published in 2019

Media and blogs: GiveDirectly, IDinsight

Using cash transfers to benchmark the cost-effectiveness of a youth workforce readiness program

Researchers: Craig Mcintosh (UCSD), Andrew Zeitlin (Georgetown), with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action

Overview: This study benchmarked the impact of a youth employment education intervention to cash transfers in the Rwandan context. It found that both programs increased productive hours, assets, savings, and subjective well-being. Only youth training improved business knowledge, and only cash transfers improved consumption, income, and wealth. When the programs were compared directly at an equivalent cost per beneficiary ($332), “cash proves superior across a number of economic outcomes, while training outperforms cash only in the production of business knowledge”. The study found little evidence that combining cash with training improved cost-effectiveness, compared to delivering cash on its own.

Registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Working paper published in 2020, second endline planned for early 2021

Media and blogs: Vox, DevEx, Axios, Center for Global Development, GiveDirectly

How do cash transfers impact local economies?

Researchers: Dennis Egger (UC Berkeley), Johannes Haushofer (Princeton), Ted Miguel (UC Berkeley), Paul Niehaus (UCSD), and Michael Walker (UC Berkeley), with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action.

Location: Siaya County, Kenya

Overview: This study found that the consumption expenditure and income increased for both people who received cash, and those who did not. Over the course of 27 months, the total economic impact of a $1,000 transfer was approximately $2,500 (a fiscal multiplier of about 2.5) when impacts for recipients and non-recipients are combined. There were also gains in psychological wellbeing, food security, education and security for recipients, and no significant negative impacts were recorded for non-recipients. Delivering over 15% of local GDP in cash transfers only increased prices by 0.1% on average.

Registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Peer-reviewed paper (Econometrica, 2022). Working paper on taxation impacts released in 2018.

Media and blogs: Washington Post, The Economist, NPR, Vox, World Economic Forum, CBS Bay Area, GiveDirectly, The Life You Can Save, Behavioral Scientist, Michael Walker (taxation findings), Econimate

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

Researchers: Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Tavneet Suri, (MIT), Alan Krueger (Princeton), Paul Niehaus (UCSD), and Michael Faye (GiveDirectly), with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action

Location: Siaya and Bomet counties, Kenya

Overview: The largest study of UBI to date will explore the impact of a long term basic income (12 years of monthly payments equivalent to $0.75 per day), a short term basic income (2 years at $0.75 per day) and a lump sum equivalent to the total value short term basic income. Surveys will cover a broad range of outcome domains: economic, health, social well-being, macroeconomic well-being, and financial preferences. Read more here.

Study registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Working paper on how basic income affects recipients during COVID-19 (2020). Lump sum and short term cash transfers complete, long term transfers ongoing. First endline survey complete and analysis underway.

Media and blogs: Vox, The Conversation, GiveDirectly

Randomized controlled trials in progress

Can a psychological intervention amplify the impact of cash transfers?

Researchers: Kate Orkin (Oxford), Rob Garlick (Duke), Stefan Dercon (Oxford), Richard Sedlmayr (Oxford), Mahreen Mahmud (Oxford) and Johannes Haushofer (Princeton)

Location: Siaya and Homa Bay counties, Kenya

Study description: This study examines whether short, low-cost motivational interventions drawing on social psychology affect psychological outcomes, such as aspirations and sense of control, economic behaviour, and future-oriented investments. It also explores whether receiving such an intervention in combination with a cash transfer enhances the effects of the cash transfer. The intervention consists of a twenty-minute video about people similar to the respondents who have been successful economically, followed by a goal-setting exercise in groups. Similar videos were already tested in Ethiopia and Western Kenya.

Overview: AEA registry for main study; adjunct studies registered separately

Status: Endline complete, analysis underway

Evaluating alternative cash transfer designs in Kenya using behavioral economics

Researchers: Anandi Mani (Warwick), Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard), Paul Niehaus (UCSD), and Anuj Shah (Chicago) in partnership with ideas42 and measurement by GiveDirectly.

Location: Siaya County, Kenya

Overview: This study is measuring the impact of different cash transfer designs, including giving recipients control over timing and giving them information on the performance of investments made by past recipients.

Study registration: AEA registry entry

Status: Endline complete, analysis underway.

Benchmarking the impact of cash transfers in Liberia

Researchers: Jonathan Robinson (UCSC), Alan Spearot (UCSC), Jenny Aker (Tufts), and Shilpa Aggrawal (Indian School of Business), with measurement by Innovations for Poverty Action

Location: Bong and Nimba counties, Liberia

Overview: This study will evaluate the impact of different cash transfers sizes ($250 to $750) on a broad range of outcome measures, for a broad range of recipients. Its findings will provide a benchmark against which the impacts of other potential development interventions in Liberia can be assessed. It will also test whether improving access to agricultural input markets increases the impact of cash transfers.