Study Details | Pathways to Work

101048-Study of Baby's Firs

Study quality: High

High

Reason for the rating: This study received a high study quality rating because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition, suggesting the findings can be attributed to the program.

Program: Baby's First Years Unconditional Cash Transfer

Characteristics of study participants:

Parents, Public benefits recipients

Services provided:

Unconditional cash transfers

Setting: Urban only

Methods and Standards Protocol version used for review: Version 2.0

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Study design

Design:

Randomized controlled trial

Study group formation:

This study of the Baby's First Years (BFY) Unconditional Cash Transfer program included low-income mothers who gave birth in twelve hospitals across New Orleans, New York City, the Omaha Metropolitan area, and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul between May 2018 and June 2019. Participants were required to have household incomes below the federal poverty line and to reside in the state of recruitment. A total of 1,000 mothers were randomly assigned shortly after childbirth, with 400 participants assigned to a high-cash gift program group and 600 participants assigned to a low-cash gift comparison group.

Time period of study:

The study ran from May 2018 to June 2022. Study enrollment ran from May 2018 to June 2019. The unconditional monthly transfer ran from May 2018 through November 2025. Study data collection occurred from May 2018 through June 2022, consisting of three annual follow-up surveys at the children's first, second, and third birthdays.

Primary outcome domains examined:

Increase long-term earnings, Increase short-term employment, Increase long-term employment, Decrease short-term benefit receipt, Decrease long-term benefit receipt, Increase education and training

Other outcome domains examined:

Household poverty status, savings and other assets, debt, maternal time use in employment and education, child care, maternal time spent with child on early learning tasks and activities, general household expenditures, child-specific expenditures, purchases of infant durable goods since birth, maternal subjective well-being, breastfeeding

Study funded by:

The study was funded by the following sources: National Institutes of Health, Grant Number R01HD087384; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation; Andrew and Julie Klingenstein Family Fund; Annie E. Casey Foundation; Arrow Impact; BCBS of Louisiana Foundation; Bezos Family Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Bill Hammack and Janice Parmelee, Brady Education Fund; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Silicon Valley Community Foundation); Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; Child Welfare Fund; Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund; Ford Foundation; Greater New Orleans Foundation; Heising-Simons Foundation; Jacobs Foundation; JPB Foundation; J-PAL North America; New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity; Perigee Fund; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Sherwood Foundation; Valhalla Foundation; Weitz Family Foundation; W. K. Kellogg Foundation; three anonymous donors.

Results

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Outcome domain	Measure	Timing	Study quality by finding	Comparison group mean	Program group mean	Impact	Units	Sample size
Increase short-term earnings	Average earnings over follow-up period, monthly	Month 12	High			15.77	2020 dollars	911
Increase long-term earnings	Annual earnings	Month 36	High	11,389.80	10,427.90	-961.90	2022 dollars	911
Increase short-term employment	Currently employed	Month 12	High	45.00	41.00	-4.00	percentage points	931
Increase long-term employment	Currently employed	Month 36	High	50.00	51.00	1.00	percentage points	922
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received any public assistance benefits, annual	Month 12	High			-1.80	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received food stamps/SNAP, annual	Month 12	High			-2.40	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received housing assistance, annual	Month 12	High			-7.70	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received LIHEAP, annual	Month 12	High			-2.30	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received Medicaid, annual	Month 12	High			-4.70	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received UI payments, annual	Month 12	High			3.70	percentage points	931
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received WIC, annual	Month 12	High			0.40	percentage points	931
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received any public assistance benefits, annual	Month 36	High			-3.60	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received food stamps/SNAP, annual	Month 36	High			-4.60	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received housing assistance, annual	Month 36	High			-4.90	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received LIHEAP, annual	Month 24	High			-5.00	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received Medicaid, annual	Month 36	High			-7.20	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received UI payments, annual	Month 36	High			-1.40	percentage points	922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received WIC, annual	Month 36	High			-3.80	percentage points	922
Increase education and training	Completed educational degree or certificate	Months 25 to 36	High			2.60	percentage points	922

Short-term outcomes are those measured 18 months or fewer after participants are first offered services. Long-term outcomes are those measured between 18 months and 5 years after participants are first offered services. Very long-term outcomes are those measured 5 years or more after participants are first offered services.

Means are not displayed when not reported or not aligned with the impact estimates. For example, if the impact estimate is regression-adjusted but only unadjusted means are reported in the study, the unadjusted means are not displayed as they are not aligned with the adjusted impact estimate.

Impact estimates are not shown when the estimate units cannot be converted to natural units.

Findings quality key:

High
Moderate

Study quality terms?

The findings quality describe our confidence that a given study’s finding is because of the program. We do not display findings that rate low.

Findings key:

A moderate-to-large favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large favorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that might be due to chance
A favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A favorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that might be due to chance
An unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
An unfavorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size or direction
A finding of no effect that might be due to chance

Favorable findings are impacts in a direction that is socially desirable. Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a study finding is due to the program, rather than due to chance. Findings are described as moderate-to-large if the program produced a sufficiently large change in the outcome. An impact receives this designation if the standardized effect size is equal to or greater than 0.25 or equal to or less than -0.25.

Sample characteristics

All participants were adult mothers with low income. Participants were an average age of 27 years old at the time of their child’s birth. Most mothers reported receiving some type of government benefit (95 percent) and were either Black (41 percent) or Hispanic (41 percent). Forty-five percent of participants were single parents.

Age

Mean age

27 years

Sex

Female

100%

Race and ethnicity

Black or African American	41%
White, not Hispanic	10%
Hispanic or Latino of any race	41%
Another race	4%
More than one race	4%

The race and ethnicity categories may sum to more than 100 percent if the authors reported race and ethnicity separately; in these cases, we report the category White, rather than White, not Hispanic.

Family status

Parents	100%
Single parents	45%

Employment and public benefit status

Public benefits recipients

95%

Program implementation

Implementing organization:

Local charitable non-profit organizations

Program history:

The Baby's First Years (BFY) Unconditional Cash Transfer program was not in existence prior to the start of the study.

Program services:

The “high-cash gift group” received a cash gift of $333 per month ($3,996/year). The duration was initially for 40 months and was subsequently extended to a duration of 76 months. There were no restrictions regarding how the cash gift could be used. Mothers were given a debit card in the hospital, and the cash gift was loaded monthly on the same day as the child’s birth along with a text message. Mothers also had access to a hotline number for assistance with BFY card use.

Mandatory services:

None

Comparison services:

The “low-cash gift group” received an unconditional cash gift of $20 per month ($240/year) for a duration of 76 months using the same distribution processes as the “high-cash gift group.”

Service receipt duration:

The duration of the unconditional cash transfer was initially for 40 months and was subsequently extended to a duration of 76 months.

Program funding:

The program was funded by the following sources: National Institutes of Health Grant Number R01HD087384; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation; Andrew and Julie Klingenstein Family Fund; Annie E. Casey Foundation; Arrow Impact; BCBS of Louisiana Foundation; Bezos Family Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Bill Hammack and Janice Parmelee, Brady Education Fund; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Silicon Valley Community Foundation); Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; Child Welfare Fund; Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund; Ford Foundation; Greater New Orleans Foundation; Heising-Simons Foundation; Jacobs Foundation; JPB Foundation; J-PAL North America; New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity; Perigee Fund; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Sherwood Foundation; Valhalla Foundation; Weitz Family Foundation; W.K. Kellogg Foundation; three anonymous donors.

Study publications

Gennetian, Lisa, Greg Duncan, Nathan A. Fox, Katherine Magnuson, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kimberly G. Noble, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa (2022). Unconditional cash and family investments in infants: Evidence from a large-scale cash transfer experiment in the U.S., NBER Working Paper 30379. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3386/w30379.

Gennetian, Lisa, Greg Duncan, Nathan Fox, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Katherine Magnuson, Kimberly G. Noble, Hirokazu Yoshikawa (2024). Effects of a monthly unconditional cash transfer starting at birth on family investments among US families with low income [Supplementary information], Nature and Human Behavior 8: 1514-1529. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01915-7

Gennetian, Lisa, Greg Duncan, Nathan Fox, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Katherine Magnuson, Kimberly G. Noble, Hirokazu Yoshikawa (2024). Effects of a monthly unconditional cash transfer starting at birth on family investments among US families with low income, Nature and Human Behavior 8: 1514-1529. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01915-7

Noble, Kimberly G., Katherine Magnuson, Lisa A. Gennetian, Greg J. Duncan, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Nathan A. Fox, and Sarah Halpern-Meekin (2021). Baby's First Years: Design of a randomized controlled trial of poverty reduction in the U.S., Pedatrics 148(4): Article e2020049702. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-049072

Sauval, Maria, Greg Duncan, Lisa Gennetian, Katherine Magnuson, Nathan Fox, Kimberly Noble, Hirokazu Yoshikawa (2022). Unconditional cash transfers and maternal employment: Evidence from the Baby's First Years Study, [Working paper], Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4297310

Stilwell, Laura, Maritza Morales-Gracia, Katherine Magnuson, Lisa A. Gennetian, Maria Sauval, Nathan A. Fox, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Kimberly G. Noble (2024). Unconditional cash and breastfeeding, child care, and maternal employment among families with young children residing in poverty, Social Services Review 98(2): 260-292. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/729364.

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Study of Baby's First Years Unconditional Cash Transfer