Skip to main content

Unpacking a Multi-Faceted Program to Build Sustainable Income for the Very Poor (WP-18-04)

Abhijit Banerjee, Dean Karlan, Robert Darko Osei, Hannah Trachtman, and Christopher Udry

A multi-faceted program comprising a grant of productive assets, training, coaching, and savings has been found to build sustainable income for those in extreme poverty. The researchers focus on two important questions: whether a mere grant of productive assets would generate similar impacts (it does not), and whether access to a savings account and a deposit collection service would generate similar impacts (it does not).

Find more Global Poverty Research Lab working papers on SSRN.

Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics and Finance, IPR Associate, and Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University

Robert Darko Osei, Associate Professor, Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research, University of Ghana

Hannah Trachtman, PhD Student in Economics, Yale University

Christopher Udry, Professor of Economics, IPR Associate, and Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University

Download PDF