Money and my mind: Maternal cash transfers and mental health

This paper documents important mental health spillovers in the context of a program that offered pregnant women modest cash incentives to use pre‐ and perinatal health care services. Program participation was randomized and the payments were made after the birth of the child (and after the completion of an endline mental health assessment). I present causal evidence that the program led to improvements in mothers' mental health. The effect size ranges from a 1–3 percentage point reduction in postpartum depression measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. I present suggestive evidence that these beneficial effects on mental health may be related to program‐induced improvements in child health. These results provide novel evidence that programs designed to improve birth outcomes may generate unanticipated spillover effects on mental health.