Recently, U.S. advocates and funders have supported direct cash transfers for individuals and families as an efficient, immediate, and non‐paternalistic path to poverty alleviation. Open questions remain, however, about their implementation. We address these using data from debit card transactions, customer service call‐line logs, and in‐depth interviews from a randomized control study of a monthly unconditional cash gift delivered via debit card to mothers of young children living near the federal poverty line. Because much of the impact of the intervention occurs through mothers’ decisions about how to allocate the Baby's First Years (BFY) money, we argue that implementation science must recognize the role of policy targets in implementing policy, not just in terms of policy outcomes but also policy implementation processes. Further, our analysis shows that mothers experience key aspects of the cash intervention's design as intended: they viewed the cash gift as unconditional and knew the money was reliable and would continue monthly, receiving the correct amount with few incidents. Delivering funds via debit card worked well, offering mothers flexibility in purchasing. We also illuminate how design features shaped mothers’ experiences. First, although they knew it was unconditional, the social meaning of the BFY money to mothers—seen as “the baby's money”—shaped their engagement with and allocation of it. Second, low public visibility of mothers’ receipt of this money limited the financial demands or requests from others, potentially facilitating more agency over and a greater ability to use the money as they chose, without claims from kin.

中文翻译：

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从出生开始每月无条件收入补助：美国低收入幼儿母亲的经验

最近，美国的倡导者和资助者支持向个人和家庭进行直接现金转移，认为这是一种有效、直接和非家长式的扶贫途径。然而，关于其实施的问题仍然存在。我们使用借记卡交易数据、客户服务热线日志以及随机对照研究中的深入访谈来解决这些问题，该研究通过借记卡每月向生活在联邦贫困线附近的幼儿的母亲提供无条件现金礼物。由于干预措施的大部分影响是通过母亲决定如何分配婴儿第一年 (BFY) 资金而产生的，因此我们认为，实施科学必须认识到政策目标在实施政策中的作用，不仅在政策结果方面，而且在政策实施过程中也应认识到政策目标的作用。还有政策执行流程。此外，我们的分析表明，母亲们体验到了现金干预设计的关键方面：她们认为现金礼物是无条件的，并且知道这笔钱是可靠的，并且会每月持续收到正确的金额，很少发生意外。通过借记卡提供资金效果很好，为母亲提供了购买的灵活性。我们还阐明了设计特征如何塑造母亲的体验。首先，尽管她们知道这是无条件的，但 BFY 资金对母亲来说的社会意义（被视为“婴儿的钱”）决定了她们对这笔资金的参与和分配。其次，母亲收到这笔钱的公众知名度较低，限制了其他人的财务需求或要求，这可能会促进更多的代理权和更大的能力按照她们的选择使用这笔钱，而无需亲属提出要求。