>Those are much bigger drops than have been credited to routine immunizations, for example, or bed nets to prevent malaria.
>“This is easily the biggest impact on child survival that I’ve seen from an intervention that was designed to alleviate poverty,” said Harsha Thirumurthy, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the work.
>Unconditional cash transfers (accounting for spillovers) lead to 48% fewer infant deaths before age one and 45% fewer child deaths before age five.
Heard about this via the NYT: A New Way to Reduce Children’s Deaths: Cash https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/health/cash-transfer-keny... archive: https://archive.is/ct2o0
They write:
>Those are much bigger drops than have been credited to routine immunizations, for example, or bed nets to prevent malaria.
>“This is easily the biggest impact on child survival that I’ve seen from an intervention that was designed to alleviate poverty,” said Harsha Thirumurthy, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the work.