{"id":34649,"date":"2022-05-06T12:43:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=34649"},"modified":"2022-05-06T12:43:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:43:53","slug":"giving-people-money-with-no-strings-attached-is-good-for-their-health-dozens-of-studies-indicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/giving-people-money-with-no-strings-attached-is-good-for-their-health-dozens-of-studies-indicate\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving people money with no strings attached is good for their health, dozens of studies indicate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

A global team of researchers analyzed 34 studies of unconditional cash-transfer programs administered in low- and middle-income countries.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/span>A growing number of assistance programs give recipients money.\u00a0himarkley\/E+ via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The big idea<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When people living in poverty in countries like Malawi, Indonesia and Ecuador\u00a0receive cash payments\u00a0without having to do anything in return, they have better health, according to a scientific review of a large body of research.<\/span><\/p>\n

To reach that finding, our interdisciplinary team of public health experts, economists and epidemiologists from Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the U.S. pooled data from 34 studies that involved 1,140,385 participants in 50,095 households across Africa, the Americas and Southeast Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our systematic review and\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0also determined that\u00a0unconditional cash payments\u00a0in low- and middle-income countries not only reduce poverty, but they also lead to greater\u00a0food security, improved nutrition and more consistent school attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow-up surveys with individuals who received this money earlier found that they were less likely to have been sick in the previous two weeks to three months compared to individuals who did not received this money. In addition, there is some evidence that people who got cash payments spent more money on health care.<\/span><\/p>\n

The studies we examined involved 24 different cash payment programs in 13 countries that were run either by governments, nonprofits or researchers. The value of the money given to people in need varied widely, equaling anywhere from\u00a01.3% to 81.9% of gross domestic product per capita.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Governments, nonprofits and researchers around the world are increasingly experimenting with a simple approach to reduce poverty:\u00a0giving people money\u00a0to spend on whatever they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these cash-transfer pilots and experiments \u2013 often called\u00a0basic income programs\u00a0\u2013 have\u00a0required people to do something\u00a0to receive the money, such as making sure their children regularly attend school. Sometimes the condition involves completing a specific health-related task, such as attending a health education workshop or going to a preventive care medical appointment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers are debating\u00a0whether these conditions improve\u00a0or\u00a0hinder the effectiveness of these programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other programs, like those we studied, have no such requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

One advantage of the no-strings-attached approach, argue the\u00a0GiveDirectly nonprofit\u00a0and other supporters, is that it eliminates the need to monitor compliance and\u00a0slashes administrative costs. Unconditional cash payments may empower recipients more since they can\u00a0decide how to use the money\u00a0to meet some of their immediate needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Making payments contingent on people meeting requirements may also unintentionally harm people in need who\u00a0can\u2019t comply with conditions\u00a0due to physical, social and economic barriers. For example, requiring a clinic visit to \u201cearn\u201d a cash payment does not help anyone unable to make the trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

What still isn\u2019t known<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We still don\u2019t have enough information to determine if this pattern holds true in the United States and other wealthier nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The long-term health benefits of unconditional cash payments is also not clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, more research is needed to understand whether the impetus for these programs, such as when they follow a hurricane or other major disaster,\u00a0makes any difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our team plans to study whether cash-payment programs that require compliance with conditions lead to better health too. We also want to update a previous review we conducted of\u00a0payments given to people who had experienced humanitarian disasters\u00a0to include evaluations of similar efforts carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sze Yan Liu<\/strong><\/span>
\nAssistant Professor of Public Health, <\/span>
\nMontclair State University<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 6 May 2022\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A global team of researchers analyzed 34 studies of unconditional cash-transfer programs administered in low- and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":34650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[1776,30503,4172,27785,32841,30125,14864,28777,32840],"class_list":["post-34649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-africa","tag-americas","tag-asia","tag-development-aid","tag-giving-quick-reads","tag-new-research","tag-public-health","tag-research-brief","tag-universal-basic-income-ubi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Money-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-90R","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}