Cash Transfer and Multidimensional Child Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

The impact of cash transfers on improving the living conditions of children and reducing early-life deprivations and vulnerabilities are crucial to safeguarding equality of opportunities and achieving sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth within the Sustainable Development Goals. The study aims to examine the change in deprivation rate among children aged 0–17 years between 2010 and 2012, as well as the impact of cash transfer on multidimensional child poverty in Ghana using the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The study used the Ghana Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Impact Evaluation Survey data, which has the baseline data collected in 2010, and the follow-up was collected in 2012. The authors used the difference-in-difference estimation technique to assess the impact of the cash transfer program on the MPI of pre-school (0–5 years) and school-aged (5–17 years) children, and compared the results with that of Propensity Score Matching. The deprivation trend reveals that deprivation among pre-school children increased for nutrition, water and sanitation. The estimated result shows that cash transfer significantly reduces MPI of pre-school and school-aged in beneficiary households by 10.5 and 1.3% relative to non-beneficiary children, respectively.

Recommended citation: Osei, K.B., & Turkson, D. (2022). Cash Transfer and Multidimensional Child Poverty: Evidence from Ghana. International Journal of Social Economics, 49 (5): 744-764.
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