Cash transfer programmes have been shown to have positive effects on a variety of outcomes. While much of the literature focuses on the role of conditionality in achieving desired impact, this paper focuses on the role of ‘soft conditionality’ implemented through both ‘labelling’ and ‘messaging’ in evaluating the impact of the Child Grants Program in Lesotho, an unconditional cash transfer programme targeting poor households with orphans and vulnerable children. Beneficiary households received a clear message that the transfer should be spent on the interest and needs of children. Our findings suggest that ‘soft conditionality’ does play a role in increasing expenditure for children, especially on education, clothing and footwear. Results indicate in fact that transfer income is spent differently from general income as it exerts both an income and a substitution effect. This behavioural change is confirmed by comparing the ex-ante expected behaviours with the ex-post actual response to the programme. We find that for expenditure categories linked to the well-being of children the ex-post response was much higher than the ex-ante expected behaviour.

中文翻译：

---

通过“软条件”塑造现金转移的影响：来自莱索托的证据†

现金转移计划已被证明对各种结果产生积极影响。虽然大部分文献都关注条件在实现预期影响方面的作用，但本文侧重于通过“标签”和“消息传递”实施的“软条件”在评估影响方面的作用莱索托的儿童补助计划，这是一项针对有孤儿和弱势儿童的贫困家庭的无条件现金转移计划。受益家庭收到了明确的信息，即转移支付应用于儿童的兴趣和需求。我们的研究结果表明，“软条件”确实在增加儿童支出方面发挥了作用，尤其是在教育、服装和鞋类方面。结果表明，事实上转移收入的支出与一般收入不同，因为它同时发挥收入和替代效应。通过将事前预期行为与事后对计划的实际反应进行比较，可以确认这种行为变化。我们发现，对于与儿童福祉相关的支出类别，事后反应远高于事前预期行为。