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https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2222103120 https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gqtOfZG2sSanWgUdzn-lx-pwSXZ... https://www.occatholic.com/targeted-cash-assistance-can-help... https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-po... https://www.chapinhall.org/wp-content/uploads/Cash-Transfers... > Direct cash transfer programs are supported by a vast international evidence
base (Baird et al., 2013). Globally, they are among the most well-evaluated interventions for addressing poverty,
boosting well-being, increasing educational attainment, and improving health outcomes and employment (Baird et al.,
2013; Pega et al., 2017). In the U.S. and Canada, numerous programs offer examples of how DCTs have have reduced childhood
obesity, improved health outcomes, reduced hospitalization rates, increased savings, and supported economic security. These
include the maintenance income experiments of the late 1960s in Denver, Seattle, New Jersey, Iowa, and Indiana, the Canadian
‘Mincome’ Experiment, and the ongoing Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (Forget, 2011; Guettabi, 2019; Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 1983). > Counter to common public narratives, numerous studies show that offering
DCTs to people experiencing poverty and adversity do not result in money
poorly spent, increased substance use, or reduced motivation to work (Evans &
Popova, 2017; Morton et al., 2020). Instead, cash is primarily spent on basic needs--food, utilities, other goods--as
evidenced in the early report on the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (West et al., 2020). The Child Tax
Credit further illuminated that regular unconditional cash contributes to reductions in food insecurity and overall poverty
(Parolin et al., 2022; Shafer et al., 2022). Furthermore, in Canada, a randomized trial of DCTs to adults experiencing
homelessness also found improvements in the speed of exiting homelessness, reductions in the amount of time spent in
homelessness, and reductions in spending on alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs among DCT program participants
(Foundations for Social Change, 2020). |