Project Description
Baby’s First Years is a pathbreaking study of the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash gifts to low-income mothers and their children in the first three years of the child’s life. The cash gifts are funded through charitable foundations. The study will identify whether reducing poverty can affect early childhood development and the family processes that support children’s development.
Dr. Gennetian is one of six PIs on this unique multi-disciplinary study directing the social science targeted data collection and analysis that includes aspects of economic distress, employment, early care and education and well-being of the children’s families, facilitating partnerships with stakeholders in each of the four study sites and facilitated communication, dissemination and fundraising.
Project Goals
The study is designed to produce strong and clear evidence about the magnitude and pathways of causal connections between family income and early childhood development. Beyond its core contributions to science, the study will provide important evidence about the likely effects of tax and income-enhancement policies for young children, such as the Child and Earned Income Tax Credits, and related social policies designed to enhance family economic stability and well-being.
Project Findings
Food Security, Spending and Consumption
- Regular, Monthly Unconditional Cash Gift Increases Families’ Investments in Young Children Research Brief (June 2024)
- Grocery and Meal Insight from the Baby’s First Years Project Podcast (April 2024)
- Impact of Monthly Unconditional Cash on Food Security, Spending, and Consumption Research Brief (April 2024)
- The Impact of Monthly Unconditional Cash on Food Security, Spending, and Consumption: Three Year Follow-Up Findings from the Baby's First Years Study Working Paper (April 2024)
Program Design and Families' Experiences
- Regular Monthly Cash Gifts in the Baby’s First Years Study: Program Design and Families’ Experiences Research Brief (August 2024)
- Cash to U.S. Families at Scale: Behavioral insights on implementation from the Baby's First Years Study Book Chapter
- Monthly Unconditional Income Supplements Starting at Birth: Experiences Among Mothers of Young Children with Low Incomes in the U.S. (March 2024)
Additional Journal Articles and Working Papers
- Poverty Reduction and Childhood Opportunity Moves: A Randomized Trial of Cash Transfers to Low-Income U.S. Families with Infants (September 2024)
- The Effect of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Maternal Assessments of Children’s Early Language and Socioemotional Development: Experimental Evidence from U.S. Families Residing in Poverty (August 2024)
- Child-Directed Speech in a Large Sample of U.S. Mothers with Low Income (July 2024)
- Effects of Monthly Unconditional Cash Transfer Starting at Birth on Family Investments Among U.S. Families with Low Income (June 2024)
- Associations Between Maternal Stress and Infant Resting Brain Activity Among Families Residing in Poverty in the U.S. (November 2023)
- Contraception Use and Satisfaction Among Mothers with Low-Income: Evidence from the Baby’s First Years Study (October 2023)
- Unconditional Cash Transfers and Maternal Assessments of Children’s Health, Nutrition, and Sleep: A Randomized Clinical Trial (September 2023)
- Unconditional Cash and Family Investments in Infants: Evidence from a Large-Scale Cash Transfer Experiment in the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper (August 2022)
- Can a Poverty Reduction Intervention Reduce Family Stress Among Families with Infants? An Experimental Analysis. (August 2022)
- The Impact of a Poverty Reduction Intervention on Infant Brain Activity (February 2022)