In Simple Words
Imagine trying to get people to visit a new park by either paying everyone $100 to go, or by putting up clear road signs pointing to a beautiful free park that people didn't know existed; providing clear signs achieves similar visits at a tiny fraction of the cost per person. Linking rural populations to existing high-wage job opportunities changes behavior at a low administrative cost per person compared to direct cash handouts.
Research question
Policy interventions aiming to delay marriage and encourage female schooling often rely on costly direct cash transfers to households, which require massive funding compared to information-based market linkage programs.
Participants
160 rural Indian villages (~125 eligible women/girls per village) evaluated against Malawi cash transfer experimental benchmarks.
Study Design
Cost analysis comparing a 3-year BPO recruitment intervention ($15,000 recruiter salary/expenses across 10 villages) against unconditional/conditional cash transfer benchmarks ($100–$240/household).
Results
The recruiting intervention cost $12 per target individual and reduced early marriage/fertility by 5.1–5.7 percentage points with a 5.0 percentage point gain in schooling, whereas unconditional cash transfers in Malawi cost $100+ per household to reduce marriage/fertility by 6.7–7.9 percentage points with no statistically significant schooling gain.
Takeaway
Prioritize job market information and recruitment linkage interventions over direct cash transfer schemes when seeking cost-effective delays in marriage and gains in female education.
Source and citation
From the source
"Each recruiter was paid $15,000 in salary and expenses and provided service to 10 villages, each with approximately 125 girls/women of the relevant ages, for a cost of $12 per individual... provided a larger gain in schooling."
Original source reference
The original reference is reproduced as recorded. Full publication details have not been independently verified.
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Plain-English glossary
Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.
- Percentage points
The difference between two percentages.
ExampleA rise from 40% to 50% is 10 percentage points. Relative to the starting value, that is a 25% increase.
Office for National Statistics · Percentages ↗Read more about percentage points →- Statistically significant
A label used when a result passes a chosen statistical threshold, often p < 0.05. It does not show how large or useful an effect is. A result that is not statistically significant does not prove there is no effect.
ExampleA study reports p = 0.03 against a 0.05 threshold. It passes that test, but the effect could still be too small to matter.
American Statistical Association · Statement on p-values ↗Read more about statistically significant →