Type: Research

Tackling Psychosocial and Capital Constraints to Alleviate Poverty

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Thomas Bossuroy, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Parienté, Patrick Premand, Catherine C. Thomas, Christopher Udry, Julia Vaillant & Kelsey A. Wright – Nature (2022) Abstract Many policies attempt to help extremely poor households build sustainable sources of income. Although economic interventions have predominated historically, psychosocial support has attracted substantial interest, particularly … Continued

Long-Term Effects of the Targeting the Ultra-Poor Program

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Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Garima Sharma (2021) This paper studies the long-run effects of a “big-push” program providing a large asset transfer to the poorest Indian households. In a randomized controlled trial that follows these households over 10 years, we find positive effects on consumption (0.6 SD), food security (0.1 SD), income (0.3 SD), … Continued

The Impact of a Graduation Program on Livelihoods in Refugee and Host Communities in Uganda

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Lasse Brune, Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Doug Parkerson, Christopher Udry (Ongoing) Evidence from multiple contexts suggests that the Graduation Approach, which provides holistic livelihood support for ultra-poor households, has lasting positive impacts on a range of outcomes. However, graduation programs are relatively expensive because of the intense level of support they offer. The costs pose … Continued

A Multifaceted Program Causes Lasting Progress for the Very Poor: Evidence from Six Countries

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Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Robert Osei, William Parienté, Jeremy Shapiro, Bram Thuysbaert, Christopher Udry (May 2015)

Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies

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Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Narayan Das, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, Munshi Sulaimany (March 2016) We study how women’s choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty…

Impact and Spillover Effects of an Asset Transfer Programme on Malnutrition

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Wameq A Raza, Ellen Van de Poel (April 2016) Evidence shows that ultra-poor households are typically unable to participate in mainstream poverty alleviation programmes. In response, an international NGO called BRAC in Bangladesh implemented the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeted Ultra-Poor (CFPR: TUP) programme that explicitly targets those living below…

Why Do People Stay Poor?

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Clare Balboni, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Maitreesh Ghatak and Anton Heil (March 2020) There are two views as to why people stay poor. The equal opportunity view emphasizes that differences in individual traits like talent or motivation make poor people choose low productivity jobs. The poverty traps view emphasizes that access to opportunities depends on … Continued

COVID-19 vs. UPG: Evidence from the 2007 Cohort in Bangladesh

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Atiya Rahman and Oriana Bandiera (March 2021) Under normal conditions, BRAC’s flagship Graduation approach aiming to alleviate poverty was proven to be highly successful at giving the poorest women in some of the poorest areas of Bangladesh the tools to escape the poverty trap (Balboni et al., 2021; Bandiera et al., 2017). Pilots of the … Continued

Impact Evaluation of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Program for the Host Community in Cox’s Bazar

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By Atiya Rahman, Anindita Bhattacharjee, Dr Narayan Das, Rafia Nisat (June 2020) Produced by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University and Supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) In collaboration with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BRAC rolled out its flagship Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program in Ukhiya … Continued

Cash-Plus: Poverty Impacts of Alternative Transfer-Based Approaches

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By Richard Sedlmayr, Anuj Shah, Munshi Sulaiman (2020) Abstract Can training and mentorship expand the economic impact of cash transfer programs, or would such extensions waste resources that recipients could allocate more impactfully by themselves? Over the course of two years, a Ugandan nonprofit organization implemented alternative poverty alleviation approaches in a randomized manner. These … Continued