Psychology, Skills, or Cash?
Growing evidence on the links between poverty and psychology has prompted increased interest in the psychosocial impacts of economic interventions and the economic impacts of psychologically motivated interventions. In practice, psychologically motivated programs typically comprise one of many components in multifaceted poverty alleviation programs. This paper asks, what are the benefits of allocating complementary, marginal investments in anti-poverty programs towards skills development or psychologically-targeted interventions versus direct economic assistance The paper benchmarks two program-based investments against an unconditional cash transfer by randomly assigning participants in an existing anti-poverty program to one of three groups. The first is psychologically-targeted. It focuses on promoting self-confidence, sense of value and self-worth, and perceived social status. The second targets specific skills: goal setting, public speaking, and networking. Both program-based investments cost around USD \$35 per participant, motivating a benchmark, cost-equivalent unconditional cash transfer. The findings show that the psychologically-targeted intervention significantly improves psychosocial outcomes but shows no economic gains relative to cash, while the skills-based program improves economic outcomes with few effects on psychosocial outcomes. The results illustrate that low-cost psychologically-targeted and skills-based interventions can be effective marginal investments relative to a small cash transfer, but their benefits may accrue in different domains.
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Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
Language: | English English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2023-07-13
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Subjects: | POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY, CASH TRANSFER, PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING, PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION, ECONOMIC INTERVENTION, SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099803306262336142/IDU0191a83d105c1504a1409e170efcb5c99fde1 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40003 |
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dig-okr-10986400032024-03-11T19:23:10Z Psychology, Skills, or Cash? Evidence on Complementary Investments for Anti-Poverty Programs Lang, Megan Soule, Edward Tinsley, Catherine H. POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION Growing evidence on the links between poverty and psychology has prompted increased interest in the psychosocial impacts of economic interventions and the economic impacts of psychologically motivated interventions. In practice, psychologically motivated programs typically comprise one of many components in multifaceted poverty alleviation programs. This paper asks, what are the benefits of allocating complementary, marginal investments in anti-poverty programs towards skills development or psychologically-targeted interventions versus direct economic assistance The paper benchmarks two program-based investments against an unconditional cash transfer by randomly assigning participants in an existing anti-poverty program to one of three groups. The first is psychologically-targeted. It focuses on promoting self-confidence, sense of value and self-worth, and perceived social status. The second targets specific skills: goal setting, public speaking, and networking. Both program-based investments cost around USD \$35 per participant, motivating a benchmark, cost-equivalent unconditional cash transfer. The findings show that the psychologically-targeted intervention significantly improves psychosocial outcomes but shows no economic gains relative to cash, while the skills-based program improves economic outcomes with few effects on psychosocial outcomes. The results illustrate that low-cost psychologically-targeted and skills-based interventions can be effective marginal investments relative to a small cash transfer, but their benefits may accrue in different domains. 2023-07-13T17:31:49Z 2023-07-13T17:31:49Z 2023-07-13 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099803306262336142/IDU0191a83d105c1504a1409e170efcb5c99fde1 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40003 English en Policy Research Working Papers; 10503 CC BY 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank application/pdf text/plain World Bank, Washington, DC |
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biblioteca |
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America del Norte |
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English English |
topic |
POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION |
spellingShingle |
POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION Lang, Megan Soule, Edward Tinsley, Catherine H. Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
description |
Growing evidence on the links between
poverty and psychology has prompted increased interest in
the psychosocial impacts of economic interventions and the
economic impacts of psychologically motivated interventions.
In practice, psychologically motivated programs typically
comprise one of many components in multifaceted poverty
alleviation programs. This paper asks, what are the benefits
of allocating complementary, marginal investments in
anti-poverty programs towards skills development or
psychologically-targeted interventions versus direct
economic assistance The paper benchmarks two program-based
investments against an unconditional cash transfer by
randomly assigning participants in an existing anti-poverty
program to one of three groups. The first is
psychologically-targeted. It focuses on promoting
self-confidence, sense of value and self-worth, and
perceived social status. The second targets specific skills:
goal setting, public speaking, and networking. Both
program-based investments cost around USD \$35 per
participant, motivating a benchmark, cost-equivalent
unconditional cash transfer. The findings show that the
psychologically-targeted intervention significantly improves
psychosocial outcomes but shows no economic gains relative
to cash, while the skills-based program improves economic
outcomes with few effects on psychosocial outcomes. The
results illustrate that low-cost psychologically-targeted
and skills-based interventions can be effective marginal
investments relative to a small cash transfer, but their
benefits may accrue in different domains. |
format |
Working Paper |
topic_facet |
POVERTY AND PSYCHOLOGY CASH TRANSFER PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INTERVENTION ECONOMIC INTERVENTION SKILL MOTIVATED INTERVENTION |
author |
Lang, Megan Soule, Edward Tinsley, Catherine H. |
author_facet |
Lang, Megan Soule, Edward Tinsley, Catherine H. |
author_sort |
Lang, Megan |
title |
Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
title_short |
Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
title_full |
Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
title_fullStr |
Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Psychology, Skills, or Cash? |
title_sort |
psychology, skills, or cash? |
publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
publishDate |
2023-07-13 |
url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099803306262336142/IDU0191a83d105c1504a1409e170efcb5c99fde1 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40003 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT langmegan psychologyskillsorcash AT souleedward psychologyskillsorcash AT tinsleycatherineh psychologyskillsorcash AT langmegan evidenceoncomplementaryinvestmentsforantipovertyprograms AT souleedward evidenceoncomplementaryinvestmentsforantipovertyprograms AT tinsleycatherineh evidenceoncomplementaryinvestmentsforantipovertyprograms |
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1794797075908526080 |