astronomy

Unconditional cash transfer

Unconditional cash transfer is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Unconditional cash transfer rather than just read about it. In short: Unconditional cash transfer (UCT) programs are philanthropic programs that aim to reduce poverty by providing financial welfare without any conditions upon the receivers' actions. This differentiates them from conditional cash transfers where the government (or a charity) only transfers the money to persons who meet certain criteria.

Key takeaways

Unconditional cash transfer belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Unconditional cash transfer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Unconditional cash transfer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Unconditional cash transfer (UCT) programs are philanthropic programs that aim to reduce poverty by providing financial welfare without any conditions upon the receivers' actions. This differentiates them from conditional cash transfers where the government (or a charity) only transfers the money to persons who meet certain criteria. Unconditional cash transfers have developed on the premise that giving cash to citizens allows them to have autonomy over their own lives.

Types Unconditional cash transfers could vary in a number of ways:

They could be one-off or recurring: One-off unconditional cash transfers involve either a literal one-time transfer or a transfer over a short period of time, intended to provide people money that they could use for long-term expenses. On the other hand, continuing or recurring cash transfers offer a small sum of money periodically, enabling people to save at a greater rate, or to spend more. Generally, unconditional cash transfers are more likely to be one-off than recurring. They could be means-tested at the individual/household level or given to all individuals/households in a given area. They could be means-tested at the level of villages or applied to all villages in a given district or region. The grant could be made at the individual or household level, and its size could be fixed or variable based on the household size.

Programs and organizations involved

SOPREON A payment process using mobile phones was adapted to the complication that 90 percent of the supposed beneficiaries did not have a mobile phone. Instead they were entitled to a SIM card for a mobile phone. The SIM card was, in essence, an entitlement for an amount of money on a given date. The payment process in this case meant bringing the SIM card to a recognized economic center in a community that was nearest to the individual who did not have a mobile phone. There, at the economic center, would be a mobile phone for the SIM card. This adaptation ensured that individuals obliged to cash payment transfers received them efficiently. Concerns about the pricing factor of one mobile phone in the economic center being read by one individual were addressed.

GiveDirectly

The largest organization exclusively devoted to cash transfers is GiveDirectly. GiveDirectly was founded by economics graduate students in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with two main inspirations: the growing evidence that cash transfers could work, and the growth of cheap and reliable money transfer technology. GiveDirectly's operations were initially limited to Kenya, where the m-Pesa money transfer system is well-established. In November 2013, the organization expanded to Uganda. Charity evaluator GiveWell first noticed GiveDirectly in July 2011, named it as a standout charity in November 2011, and gave it top charity status starting November 2012. GiveDirectly has been a GiveWell top charity in the years 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Largely as a result of GiveWell's recommendation, Good Ventures, the private foundation of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, that works closely with GiveWell, has donated well over $40 million to GiveDirectly (in grant sizes of $7 million, $5 million, $25 million, and $9.8 million). An impact evaluation of GiveDirectly's cash transfer program was conducted in collaboration with GiveDirectly, with the working paper released in October 2013, later published in 2016 after peer review. The paper attracted commentary from World Bank economist David McKenzie. He praised the robustness of the study's design and the clear disclosure of the study lead's conflict of interest, but raised two concerns:

The use of self-reporting made the results hard to interpret and rely on (this being a feature of any study that attempted to measure consumption). The subdivision of the sample into so many different groups meant that there was less statistical power that could be used to clearly decide which group had better outcomes. Chris Blattman, a prominent blogger and academic in the area of development economics, with a particular focus on randomized controlled trials, also blogged the study. He expressed two main reservations:

The observer-expectancy effect, where the people being asked questions may be subtly influenced in their answers by the experimenter's expectations. The lack of clear positive effect on long-term outcomes, as well as the lack of increased spending on health and education. These concerns were in part addressed by other studies. A follow-up of the above study finds net positive spillovers at the community level from unconditional cash transfers. Another study finds beneficial effects of unconditional cash transfer programs not only in self-reported outcomes, but also in health outcomes like body weight and biomass.

The CALP Network The CALP Network (CALP) global network of organisations engaged in policy, practice and research in humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and financial assistance more broadly. Members currently include local and international non-governmental organisations, United Nations agencies, the Red Cross/Crescent Movement, donors, specialist social innovation, technology and financial services companies, researchers and academics, and individual practitioners. Their website includes a number of studies on unconditional cash transfers, with a particular focus on cash transfers made in the aftermath of natural disasters. Salient examples include:

UNICEF's Alternative Responses for Communities in Crisis Programme, the largest humanitarian multi-purpose unconditional cash transfer partnership in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unconditional cash transfers to reduce food insecurity for displaced households and to assist with repatriation in Niger following a food crisis. Unconditional cash transfers for relief and recovery in Rizal and Laguna in the Philippines, in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana. The Electronic Cash Transfer Learning Action Network (ELAN) within CaLP has also worked with Mercy Corps, and Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) on case studies for humanitarian electronic transfer projects in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh. These case studies Examine the extent to which:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Unconditional cash transfer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Unconditional cash transfer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Unconditional cash transfer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Unconditional cash transfer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Unconditional cash transfer

In research: Unconditional cash transfer appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Unconditional cash transfer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Unconditional cash transfer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Economic development programs, Social programs, Universalism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Unconditional cash transfer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Unconditional cash transfer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Unconditional cash transfer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Unconditional cash transfer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Unconditional cash transfer in simple terms?

Why does Unconditional cash transfer matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Unconditional cash transfer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Unconditional cash transfer.