THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SAFETY NETS IN SHAPING DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES: EFFECTS ON PERSONALITY, GENDER NORMS AND EMPLOYMENT TRAJECTORIES

I examine the impact of social safety nets on personality traits, labor market outcomes, and gender norms and attitudes. For the first two outcomes, I draw on data from a nine-year longitudinal evaluation of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP), implemented by the Government of Malawi. In the first chapter, I investigate how cash transfers influence personality traits among young adults in Malawi, specifically those aged 19 to 28. I pay particular attention to whether these effects differ by receiving three additional years of treatment and gender. Given the variation in age within the sample, I also explore whether the program’s impact varies across different age cohorts. The second chapter is a systematic literature review to assess the impact of social safety nets on gender norms and attitudes. I hypothesize that social safety nets that are gender aware or those that have plus components are likely to have favorable impacts. Hence, I examine whether impacts vary by the type of social safety net, whether they are gender aware or not, integration of plus components, or the domain (type) of gender-related attitudes and norms measured. Finally, the third chapter examines the impact of cash transfers on time use among young adults in Malawi. I specifically examine whether receiving three additionally years of unearned income helps young adults’ transition from low productive jobs to high productive jobs in a context of a fragile macroeconomic situation and whether this impact varies by gender. Taken together, the three chapters of this dissertation contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth of the effects that cash transfers can have across multiple dimensions of individuals’ lives.