American Economic Review: Insights
ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)
The Long-Term Impacts of Grants on Poverty: Nine-Year Evidence from Uganda's Youth Opportunities Program
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 2,
no. 3, September 2020
(pp. 287–304)
Abstract
In 2008, Uganda gave 400 USD per person to thousands of young people to help them start skilled trades, work more, and raise incomes. Four years on, an experimental evaluation found grants raised work by 17 percent and earnings by 38 percent (Blattman, Fiala, Martinez 2014). After nine years, we find these gains have dissipated. Grantees' investment leveled off; controls eventually increased their incomes through business and casual labor; and so both groups converged in employment, earnings, and consumption levels. We see little effect on mortality, fertility, or family health and education. However, grants had lasting impacts on durable asset stocks and skilled work.Citation
Blattman, Christopher, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez. 2020. "The Long-Term Impacts of Grants on Poverty: Nine-Year Evidence from Uganda's Youth Opportunities Program." American Economic Review: Insights 2 (3): 287–304. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20190224Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H53 National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
- O22 Project Analysis