There is growing interest in the use of unconditional cash transfers as a means to alleviate poverty, yet little is known about the effects of such transfers in the U.S. This paper reports on the results of a randomized controlled study of a one-time $1,000 unconditional cash transfer in May 2020 to families with low incomes in 12 U.S. states. The families were receiving, or had recently received, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. We examine the impact of the cash transfer on five pre-registered outcomes (material hardship, mental health, parenting, child behavior, partner relationships) and several secondary outcomes (hardship avoidance, consumption, employment, benefit use). We find no statistically significant effects (powered to detect effects of 0.09 standard deviations) of the cash transfer on any outcomes for the full sample. In pre-specified exploratory analyses, we find significant reductions in material hardship (-0.17 standard deviations) among families with less than $500 of earnings in the previous month, roughly the bottom 50 percent of monthly earnings for the study sample.

中文翻译：

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COVID 现金转移研究：一次性无条件现金转移对十二个州接受 SNAP 的家庭福祉的影响

人们对使用无条件现金转移作为减轻贫困的手段越来越感兴趣，但人们对这种转移在美国的影响知之甚少本文报告了一项针对一次性 1,000 美元无条件现金的随机对照研究的结果2020 年 5 月转移到美国 12 个州的低收入家庭。这些家庭正在接受或最近接受过补充营养援助计划福利。我们研究了现金转移对五种预先登记的结果（物质困难、心理健康、养育、儿童行为、伙伴关系）和一些次要结果（避免困难、消费、就业、福利使用）的影响。我们发现没有统计上显着的影响（有能力检测 0 的影响。09 标准差）现金转移对整个样本的任何结果。在预先指定的探索性分析中，我们发现上个月收入低于 500 美元的家庭（大约是研究样本中月收入最低的 50%）的物质困难显着减少（-0.17 标准差）。