The Price Effects of Cash Versus In-Kind Transfers
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Authors
Cunha, Jesse M.
Giorgi, De Giacomo
Jayachandran, Seema
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2013-03
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2013-03
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Abstract
This paper examines the effect of cash versus in-kind transfers on local prices. Both types
of transfers increase the demand for normal goods; in-kind transfers also increase supply in
recipient communities, which should cause prices to fall relative to cash transfers. We test and
confirm this prediction using a program in Mexico that randomly assigned villages to receive
boxes of food (trucked into the village), equivalently-valued cash transfers, or no transfers.
We find that prices are significantly lower under in-kind transfers compared to cash transfers;
relative to the control group, in-kind transfers lead to a 4 percent fall in prices while cash
transfers lead to a positive but negligible increase in prices. Prices of goods other than those
transferred are also affected, but by a small amount. Thus, households’ overall purchasing
power is only modestly affected by these general equilibrium effects, even in this setting where
program eligibility is high, the transfer per household is sizeable, and hence the supply influx is
large. The exception is in remote villages, where the price effects (both the negative effects of
in-kind transfers and the positive effects of cash transfers) are considerably larger in magnitude.
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Working paper
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Graduate School of Business & Public Policy (GSBPP)
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.