PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sarah Baird
AU  - Jacobus de Hoop
AU  - Berk Özler
TI  - Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.48.2.370
DP  - 2013 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 370--403
VI  - 48
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/370.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/370.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2013 Mar 31; 48
AB  - We investigate the effects of a positive income shock on mental health among adolescent girls using evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Malawi. Offers of cash transfers strongly reduced psychological distress among baseline schoolgirls. However, these large beneficial effects declined with increases in the transfer amount offered to the parents conditional on regular school attendance by the adolescent girls. Improved physical health, increased school attendance, personal consumption, and leisure contributed to the effects. There was also strong evidence of increased psychological distress among untreated baseline schoolgirls in treatment areas. All of these effects dissipated soon after the program ended.