Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Improving child nutrition is an important component of welfare strategies in South Asia where 64 million children under the age of five suffer from stunted growth (UNICEF, 2015). A popular policy instrument for addressing poverty related deprivations in developing countries is cash transfer schemes. By adding to household income, these programs have the potential to ensure a minimum level of consumption and to improve the nutritional status of recipient households. In this paper, I observe the cumulative effect of receiving supplemental income during the critical window of the first 1000 days on the anthropometric trajectory of a child. I use panel data for beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) in Pakistan – the largest unconditional cash transfer programs in South Asia, to estimate the impact of sustained program exposure on the child’s height for age and weight for height z-scores. Results based on household and mother fixed effects estimations suggest that the female child is more likely to benefit from the additional income. This study adds to the broader policy discourse on child malnutrition and contributes to current understanding of whether cash transfers serve as an effective mechanism for improving child development outcomes.