Research
Research
Modest financial incentives are effective in improving child health: Evidence from Pakistan
Abstract: I study the effects of a modest financial incentive (transport subsidy) program targeted at improving maternal healthcare utilization on child health outcomes. The program was introduced in a context of high rates of child growth deficits accompanied with unsatisfactory maternal healthcare utilization: child stunting rates exceed 50 percent, and less than half of the women avail any postnatal care. Leveraging the staggered roll-out of the program which created a spatial discontinuity in program eligibility, I find that the program is successful in creating a positive impact on height-for-age z-scores which improves by 0.44 SD and in lowering moderate stunting by 7 percentage points. The evidence for weight-for-age z-scores is weaker, although positive. Early-life height gains have been shown to improve a child's schooling performance. Using direct costs saved at repeating a grade in school as the benefit and other conservative assumptions, I show that the program’s benefit-to-cost ratio is 2:1. I find some evidence to show that an increase in the take-up of postnatal care by 12 percentage points is an important channel behind the impact on child health.
Is a child marriage ban enough? Evidence from Pakistan
(with Shahir Shamim) Draft available soon.
Abstract: Child marriage remains a pervasive issue in South Asia, despite legislative efforts to curb the practice. This paper evaluates the short-term impacts of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act (SCMRA), enacted in Pakistan in 2013, which criminalises marriages of girls under 18. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD), the study examines the immediate effects of the ban on female education, health, and empowerment outcomes. Leveraging data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-6), we find that while the SCMRA effectively raises the average age at marriage by approximately 6 months, it has limited impact on broader health and empowerment indicators. Affected women experience increased pressure to have children soon after marriage, reflecting a trade-off between delayed marriage and diminished reproductive agency. These findings suggest that legal reforms, when implemented without complementary socioeconomic incentives, may have unintended consequences that undermine women's empowerment and well-being.
Social Protection and Perinatal Depression: Evidence from South Africa
(with Mo Alloush and Jeffrey Bloem) Dissertation Chapter. Submitted.
Abstract: We study the intra-household spillover effects of South Africa’s Older Person’s Grant—a large unconditional cash transfer—on the mental health of women who are pregnant or who recently gave birth. We first document two stylized facts. First, while depression risk declines with increased wealth, women show higher levels of depression risk than men across all wealth deciles. Second, among women, depression risk spikes during pregnancy and only slowly declines in the months following childbirth. Next, leveraging the age-eligibility threshold of the Older Person’s Grant and restricting our sample to mothers who live with an older person near the eligibility threshold, we show that the grant, which increases household income, reduces risk of perinatal depression. The magnitude of the effect on depression risk is large enough to effectively eliminate the increased risk of depression associated with pregnancy and childbirth observed in our data. These results demonstrate the importance of improved economic environments, via existing social protection programs, in supporting the mental health of women before and after childbirth.
The Health Effects of In-Utero Exposure to Cash Transfers
(with Mo Alloush) Revise & Resubmit (Journal of Human Resources).
Abstract: We study the effects of in utero exposure to a large cash transfer program on the health of children. Using data from South Africa, we use the age-eligibility threshold of the Older Person’s Grant and the variation in age differences between children and a coresident elderly to show that in utero exposure to the cash transfer led to a 0.26 SD increase in height-for-age and 0.11 SD increase in weight-for-age of children. Among older children, we leverage the variation in the timing of the start of benefits to show important out-sized benefits of in utero exposure compared to starting later in early life. These results are robust to a variety of different checks including controlling for endogenous household formation and household fixed effects. Given the importance of early child health in determining long-term outcomes, our results suggest that extending child-specific benefits to pregnant mothers can have long-term positive impacts.
Cash Transfers and Women’s Decision-making: Evidence from Pakistan
(with Hadia Majid and Adeen Saeed) Submitted.
Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of Pakistan’s largest unconditional cash transfer program on women decision-making indicators using two rounds of the living measurement survey. Our identification strategy rests on the program’s eligibility rule as a function of the household’s poverty score. We use a regression discontinuity design which we supplement with entropy balancing to get estimates from a relatively wider bandwidth. We use two variants of decision-making: sole and joint, across six different categories and find that the results are sensitive to the domain of decision-making. We find positive effects of UCT eligibility on ‘first-order strategic’ life choices like education and reproductive decisions with accompanying negative effects for domains that traditionally fall within a woman’s sphere, such as clothing. Within reproductive decisions, we find that decision-making improves in the sole sphere over time. Our analysis, then, points to the importance of triangulating findings across domains and by using multiple measures.
(with Alice Chapple Elise Reynolds, Andrew Mude and Reina Engle-Stone) Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 46 (2), 2024
Abstract: Through the perspectives of impact investors, and the nutrition community, this paper explores whether impact investment in food-related small and medium enterprises (SMEs) creates a viable path to improved nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. From the nutrition perspective, investment in food SMEs could help address coexisting multiple forms of malnutrition by shifting nutritional quality of available foods. From the investor perspective, attractiveness of investment in food SMEs depends on financial risks, how costs are passed on to consumers, and probability of impact. Clear nutritional objectives and investment criteria are needed, as well as research to maximize the potential of this innovative approach.
Unconditional Cash Transfers and Women's Labor Supply in Pakistan
(with Hadia Majid) Journal of Development Effectiveness 14 (3), 2022
Abstract: This article uses propensity score matching techniques to estimate unconditional cash transfer effects on women’s labour outcomes in Pakistan. Using two rounds of nationally representative data, we find positive effects for women in recipient households . However, we observe a dip in overall women’s employment from the first to the second round. This is likely driven by a downturn in the agriculture sector’s performance. Moreover, women in beneficiary households are better able to recover suggesting higher resilience to macroeconomic shocks. Yet, not all our results are positive as women remain vulnerable in their lack of access to non-agriculture earned income.
A situational analysis of female entrepreneurs in rural Pakistan: challenges and way-forward
(with Maheen Javaid & Mahwish Waqar) Book Chapter Under Contract: Gender @ Work in Pakistan, Routledge.
Abstract: Owing to the increasing importance assigned to women entrepreneurship in light of neoliberal agenda and their perceived ability to ‘unleash a wealth of ingenuity and creativity that can spark a new era of entrepreneurial-led growth’ (Fetsch et al., 2015, 1), this chapter aimed to shed light on the profile of rural non-farm female owned businesses, their performance, and the macro and micro constraints that hamper their expansion and success and thus, the realization of their alleged benefits. Using PRHPS (2012-2014), the study finds that women are concentrated in low productivity sectors, such as tailoring and handicraft production, which are traditionally considered socially acceptable for females. They are unregistered, employ no paid labor, and primarily operate from their homes. An examination of the business environment that these businesses operate in reveals that poor quality of electricity, subpar transport infrastructure and expensive financing and formal credit are the top constraints affecting the business climate. These impediments affect women entrepreneurs disproportionately compared to male entrepreneurs, owing to the initial disadvantage in endowment, characteristics of female businesses and socio-economic and cultural factors. Women businesses suffer due to the intersection of socially defined gender identity with factors such as inadequate education and awareness, low levels of training, disproportionate childcare and housework burden, low levels of agency and control over income, along with restrictions on mobility.
Tracing the effects of a modest financial incentive on child health over time.
Vulnerability of cash transfer programs to climate induced shocks: Evidence from Pakistan
Women’s Voice and Local Ownership (WVLO) intervention in Pakistan - Partners: Collective for Social Science Research, Shirkat Gah, and Mathematica.
Transforming Women’s Lives: An evaluation of the impact of BISP on the socio-economic well-being of women. Punjab Commission on the Status of Women. 2018. (with Hadia Majid)
Diagnostic Study on ‘Decent Work in Rural Economy in Pakistan’. International Labor Organization. 2018. (with Hadia Majid)