title: Development economics. A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor: evidence from six countries.
abstract: We present results from six randomized control trials of an integrated approach to improve livelihoods among the very poor. The approach combines the transfer of a productive asset with consumption support, training, and coaching plus savings encouragement and health education and/or services. Results from the implementation of the same basic program, adapted to a wide variety of geographic and institutional contexts and with multiple implementing partners, show statistically significant cost-effective impacts on consumption (fueled mostly by increases in self-employment income) and psychosocial status of the targeted households. The impact on the poor households lasted at least a year after all implementation ended. It is possible to make sustainable improvements in the economic status of the poor with a relatively short-term intervention.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Washington, DC, USA. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA, USA. Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Washington, DC, USA. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA, USA. Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Duflo
authors.affiliation: Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Nathanael
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Washington, DC, USA. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA, USA. Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), New Haven, CT, USA. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. dean.karlan@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karlan
authors.affiliation: University of Ghana-Legon, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Osei
authors.affiliation: Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parienté
authors.affiliation: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.affiliation: Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), New Haven, CT, USA. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Thuysbaert
authors.affiliation: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Washington, DC, USA. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA, USA. Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Udry