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The COVID-19 Cash Transfer Studies

Download PDF of full policy brief, “The COVID Cash Transfer Studies: Key Findings and Future Directions” 

By H. Luke Shaefer, Brian A. Jacob, Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Elizabeth Rhodes, and Katherine Richard

Download PDF of working paper on Randomized Control Trial 1, “The Covid Cash Transfer Study: The Impacts of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on the Wellbeing of Low-Income Families”

By Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Brian A. Jacob,  Elizabeth Rhodes, Katherine Richard, and H. Luke Shaefer

Download PDF of working paper on Randomized Control Trial 2, “The COVID Cash Transfer Study II: The Hardship and Mental Health Impacts of an Unconditional Cash Transfer to low-income individuals”

By Brian A. Jacob, Natasha V. Pilkauskas,  Elizabeth Rhodes, Katherine Richard, and H. Luke Shaefer

Introduction

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States and resulted in businesses, schools, and other non-essential operations being shut down. In response, the federal government passed and administered a series of historically robust cash transfer programs, including a series of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs or stimulus checks), expanded unemployment insurance, and an expanded child tax credit. Studies find these measures helped low- and middle-income families build their savings, and protected many families from rising poverty and hardship.

Many non-governmental charitable organizations also responded to the economic crisis in significant ways. GiveDirectly began providing individuals receiving federal food assistance (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits) with a one-time, unconditional cash transfer of $1,000 during spring 2020. Our research team was invited to study the effects of these transfer payments using a randomized controlled trial experiment in May 2020 (RCT1), and then again in fall 2020 (RCT2). The following publications report on the findings from these studies.

Download PDF of full policy brief, “The COVID Cash Transfer Studies: Key Findings and Future Directions” 

Download PDF of working paper on Randomized Control Trial 1, “The Covid Cash Transfer Study: The Impacts of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on the Wellbeing of Low-Income Families”

Download PDF of working paper on Randomized Control Trial 2, “The COVID Cash Transfer Study II: The Hardship and Mental Health Impacts of an Unconditional Cash Transfer to low-income individuals”