Chris Blattman

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The long, LONG term impact of cash transfers to the poor

Nearly a century later…

we collected individual-level administrative records of applicants to the Mothers’ Pension program—the first government-sponsored welfare program in the US (1911-1935) —and matched them to census, WWII and death records.

Male children of accepted applicants lived one year longer than those of rejected mothers. Male children of accepted mothers received one-third more years of schooling, were less likely to be underweight, and had higher income in adulthood than children of rejected mothers.

A new NBER paper by Aizer, Eli, Ferrie, and Lleras-Muney. I do not see an ungated version on author websites but it may appear.

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