Two Year Cash Transfer Program*

We study a group of young women in rural Malawi who were exposed to a cash transfer experiment as adolescents. More than two years after the end of transfers, we find that the substantial short-term benefits of the program have largely evaporated. Unconditional cash transfers (UCT) caused a shortterm delay of marriage, fertility, and HIV infection, but the ending of the program is immediately followed by a wave of marriages and pregnancies, accompanied with a catch-up to the control group in HIV prevalence. It does however appear that children born to UCT mothers during the program are significantly taller for their age. For those who had already dropped out when the study began, two years of conditional transfers produced a meaningful long-term increase in educational attainment and a more educated pool of husbands. Even in this group we see no increase in employment rates, wages, real-life capabilities, or empowerment, suggesting that schooling itself has not improved the medium-term labor market prospects of young women in this context