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Worldwide millions of families with children residing with low or precarious income receive some form of unconditional cash income. Nevertheless economists have limited causal evidence on how families receiving unconditional income would spend those funds. We examine financial and time investments in infants among families living in poverty from a large-scale, multi-site randomized controlled study of monthly unconditional cash. We find increased spending on child-specific goods and mothers’ early-learning activities with their infants. The marginal propensity to consume child-focused items from the cash transfer exceeded that from other income, consistent with the behavioral cues in the design. We find no statistically detectable offsets in household earnings or impacts on pre-registered outcomes related to expenditures, labor supply, childcare or subjective well-being. JEL: D13, H31, I30, J13, J18, J22

We motivate future neighborhood research through a simple model that considers youth educational outcomes as a function of neighborhood context, neighborhood exposure, individual vulnerability to neighborhood effects, and non-neighborhood educational inputs -- with a focus on effect heterogeneity. Research using this approach would require three steps. First, researchers would need to shift focus away from broad theories of neighborhood effects and examine the specific mechanisms through which the characteristics of a neighborhood might affect an individual. Second, neighborhood research would need new and far more nuanced data. Third, more research designs would be needed that can unpack the causal effects, if any, of specific neighborhood characteristics as they operate through well-specified mechanisms.

This report focuses on whether pilot welfare reform programs launched in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota affected children's developmental outcomes. In general, the five state programs achieved their policy goals for adults and increased parental employment, earnings, and in some cases, household income. Overall, there were few impacts on young school-age children, although the programs with the most positive impacts also increased family income. Impacts on adolescents were more frequent and primarily negative.

This report focuses on whether pilot welfare reform programs launched in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota affected children's developmental outcomes.