title: Income Transfers and Maternal Health: Evidence from a National Randomized Social Cash Transfer Program in Zambia.
abstract: There is promising recent evidence that poverty-targeted social cash transfers have potential to improve maternal health outcomes; however, questions remain surrounding design features responsible for impacts. In addition, virtually no evidence exists from the African region. This study explores the impact of Zambia's Child Grant Program on a range of maternal health utilization outcomes using a randomized design and difference-in-differences multivariate regression from data collected over 24 months from 2010 to 2012. Results indicate that while there are no measurable program impacts among the main sample, there are heterogeneous impacts on skilled attendance at birth among a sample of women residing in households having better access to maternal health services. The latter result is particularly interesting because of the overall low level of health care availability in program areas suggesting that dedicated program design or matching supply-side interventions may be necessary to leverage unconditional cash transfers in similar settings to impact maternal health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Child Poverty and Social and Economic Policy Responses, UNICEF Office of Research, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Sudhanshu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Handa
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peterman
authors.affiliation: American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Seidenfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
authors.forename: Gelson
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tembo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000191:economics*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D000068097:Maternal Health; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011203:Poverty; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015024:Zambia
keywords: Zambia; cash transfers; maternal health