Intervention(s)
We will canvas community blocks (the smallest increment of formal community division in Monrovia) in selected communities and conduct the household census with heads of households or their partners. Subjects will be invited to participate in the research voluntarily. Written consent will be recorded. This household census will include a form of the proxy means test, questions about recent health and economic shocks, questions about their inter-household social interactions/who the respondent pays attention to in the community, and questions about their perceptions of other community members’ relevant knowledge.
After the household census, some community members will be invited to complete a one-on-one interview with an IPA staff member. Invited community members will be drawn from 15% of households interviewed in the household census. We refer to the individuals invited for one-on-one meetings as “Targeting Assistants” (TAs) as they will provide input to help determine how the unconditional cash grant will be distributed among households living within the community.
We refer to the one-on-one interview as a “targeting assistant survey” as the interview aims to elicit the beliefs and preferences of the Targeting Assistants. Subjects will be invited to participate in the research voluntarily. Written consent will be recorded. During the targeting assistant survey, TAs will be asked to express their belief about whether or not other households in the community are among the poorest 20% of households in the community.
Targeting Assistants will not know about the cash grant before targeting assistant survey. We will then randomize way in which the targeting assistant survey is introduced. One of the following two paragraphs will be read to the targeting assistant.
"The goal of this program is to reach the poorest households in this community. We would like to request your assistance in deciding how to reach the poorest households in this community."
OR
"The goal of this program is to reach the households affected by a major loss of wealth (fire, flood, theft) in this community. We would like to request your help in deciding how to reach households affected by a major loss of wealth (fire, flood, theft) in this community."
Half of the targeting assistants will hear the first framing (poverty) and the other half will hear the second framing (shocks).
The variation is important to understand whether or not framing the motivation changes the way in which targeting assistants assess the welfare of other members of the community.
In addition to questions to assess the TAs familiarity with other members of the community, TAs will be asked the following two questions about the relative welfare of 30 households within their community:
Question 1:
Please imagine a 5-step ladder. [Show picture of ladder] On the bottom, the first step stand the poorest 20% of households in {community}. On the highest step, the fifth stands the richest 20% of households in {community}.
Where do you think {name}’s household stands when you think of how poor or wealthy {name}’s household is compared to others in {community}? (Ask the respondent to provide a number 1-5)
In place of the {name} placeholder, we will ask the targeting assistant about specific people that live in their neighborhood. The names will be drawn from the household census. As such, using a fictitious name, the question as asked will be asked as: Where do you think {Joesph Tubman}’s household stands when you think of how poor or wealthy {Joseph Tubman}’s household is compared to others in {Banjor}?
Question 2:
If we asked other people in your community, what percentage would say that {name}’s household is on the first step of the ladder, that is in the poorest 20% of households in {community}?
As with Question 1, we will insert names of members of the neighborhood. For example, using the fictitious case above, If we asked other people in your community, what percentage would say that {Joseph Tubman}’s household is on the first step of the ladder, that is in the poorest 20% of households in {community}?
We ask you to report this probability in percentages, ranging from 0% to 100%. For example, if you are completely sure that others in your community block would say that {name}’s household is on the first step of the ladder, you should report a probability of 100%. If you are not sure whether others in your community block would agree that {name}’s household is among the poorest 20% of households, you should report a probability between 0% and 100%.
The 30 households that each TA is asked about will be randomly drawn from the total population of households in the TA's community. This will provide 5 data points from targeting assistant surveys for every household in the community.
All households within the study area will be eligible for a cash grant drawing, independent of their participation in the study. Beneficiaries of the cash grant drawing will receive an expected value of USD$80. We anticipate a maximum of 280 households receiving a cash grant. Participation in the study is not required to be eligible for the cash grant drawing. Using the rankings and data collected from the targeting assistant surveys and community leader meetings, one-time cash grants will be provided to selected beneficiaries. This selection will include the households identified in the community targeting exercise in addition to households most likely to be considered poor by TAs. Effectively, if the TAs identify a household as poor, the likelihood of a household receiving a cash grant is increased.
Heads of selected households will be invited by phone to collect their cash grant at a designated central location near the community. Cash grant beneficiaries will be asked to verify their identity (name, age, gender, phone number). Cash grants will only be distributed to verified members of the urban neighborhoods included in this study. There is only one cash grant per household.
Responses from the Targeting Assistant Surveys will be aggregated to give each household in the community is given a score (i.e. number of Targeting Assistants that classify a household as poor). We refer to the score as the poverty-likelihood score. The households most commonly identified as poor are more likely to receive a cash grant. The poverty-likelihood score from the targeting assistant surveys effectively serves as a probability weight for the likelihood of receiving the cash grant. To give all households a non-zero probability of receiving a cash grant, we will also randomly select (weighted by the poverty-likelihood score) households from each community to receive the cash grant. The random assignment is intended to provide exogenous variation in the amount of cash received by a household, thus allowing us to evaluate the causal effect of additional cash on household behaviors. We anticipate that the households selected to receive the cash grant will be 20% of households within each community.