The impact of cash transfers on Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Evidence from a multidimensional regression discontinuity design

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of multipurpose cash assistance on refugee households, by relying on an original sampling design that allows tracing these impacts over multiple periods. Using two waves of household survey data collected in 2019 from economically vulnerable Syrian refugee households in Lebanon, we estimate the program impact of varying cash assistance durations including: discontinued recipients (received cash for 12 months then got discontinued in the next cash cycle), short-run cash recipients (12 months or less), long-run recipients (more than 12 months) and non-beneficiary eligible households. Using a sharp multidimensional regression discontinuity design, we find that most detected impacts materialize in the long-term cash group, indicating the importance of instituting longer-term cash cycles. Households in the long-run group had significantly higher levels of total household and food expenditures, higher access to residential housing and formal enrollment for children, and lower levels of child labor. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.