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Shortening the Path to Productive Investment: Evidence from Input Fairs and Cash Transfers in Malawi

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  • Shilpa Aggarwal
  • Dahyeon Jeong
  • Naresh Kumar
  • David Sungho Park
  • Jonathan Robinson
  • Alan Spearot

Abstract

While cash transfers consistently show large effects on immediate outcomes like consumption, limited access to markets may mute their impact on productive investment. In an experiment in Malawi, we cross-cut cash transfers with an "input fair," designed to reduce transport costs to access agricultural inputs. Cash alone increases investment by 27%, while the joint provision of cash and the input fair increases investment by about 40%; thus, the incremental effect of the input fair is equivalent to about a 50% increase compared to the effect of cash alone. Input fairs alone were ineffective.

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  • Shilpa Aggarwal & Dahyeon Jeong & Naresh Kumar & David Sungho Park & Jonathan Robinson & Alan Spearot, 2024. "Shortening the Path to Productive Investment: Evidence from Input Fairs and Cash Transfers in Malawi," NBER Working Papers 32263, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32263
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    1. Andrew Dillon & Nicoló Tomaselli, 2024. "Making Markets: Experiments in Agricultural Input Market Formation," Working Papers - Economics wp2024_18.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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