Network and Spillover Effects in Human Development: How Robust Are Network Connections Across Types and Through Time?

Network and Spillover Effects in Human Development: How Robust Are Network Connections Across Types and Through Time?
This pilot award evaluates large-scale cash interventions and aspirations-promotion in Western Kenya. The nonprofit organization, GiveDirectly, provides the unconditional cash transfers that target random, low-income households in the rural counties of Homa Bay and Siaya. The study collects data from the respondents' economic and psycho-social networks, both before and after the intervention. This data reveals network stability in the face of economic and psychological interventions; tracks whether economic resources and/or behavioral changes spill over through the network; and, ultimately, determines how network connections mediate the intervention’s effects on the health and education of the respondents and their household.