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The problem
Intervention: Maternity Capital program: cash subsidy of 250,000 Rubles (approximately 7,150 euros or 10,000 USD in 2007) provided to mothers of second or subsequent children, usable for housing improvements, child education/childcare, or maternal retirement
Who it was tested with: Russian families with two or more children, eligible from January 2007 onwards, analysed using longitudinal data 2010-2017.
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Using data from the representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2010-2017, I tested regression discontinuity models and found that MC eligibility may have led to a small improvement in child health status, which could be explained by improved housing conditions, particularly in rural areas." The regression discontinuity design provides quasi-experimental evidence by comparing families just above and below the eligibility cutoff, allowing causal inference about program effects.
The study identifies association through RDD but cannot fully explain all mechanisms. The reduced socialisation outcome lacks mechanistic explanation and its developmental significance is unclear. Heterogeneous effects suggest results may not generalise across all subgroups.
Across countries and designs
6 studies · 6 countries
