Peer-reviewed article
Impact of Child Subsidies on Child Health, Well-Being, and Investment in Child Human Capital: Evidence from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2010–2017
Alex Proshin ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how Russia's Maternity Capital program, which provides a subsidy to families with two or more children, affected child health and well-being between 2010 and 2017. The program allowed families to spend the money on housing, education, or retirement savings. The research found small improvements in child health status, particularly in rural areas where families used the money to improve housing, but also found that children in eligible families reported less social interaction with peers.
Key points
- Maternity Capital eligibility was associated with small improvements in child health status
- Improved housing conditions, particularly in rural areas, appeared to explain some health gains
- Children in MC-eligible families were more likely to report reduced socialisation
- Impact varied by child gender, household poverty status, and urban versus rural location
- Findings were robust across different regression discontinuity design specifications
Limitations
The study measures association between program eligibility and outcomes but cannot definitively establish causation for all outcomes. The reduced socialisation finding lacks explanation for its mechanism or whether this represents a genuine concern for child development.
Abstract
This study evaluates the impact of introducing the Maternity Capital (MC) program-a child subsidy of 250,000 Rub (7,150 euros or 10,000 USD, in 2007)-provided to mothers giving birth to/adopting a second or subsequent child since January 2007. Eligible Russian families could use this subsidy to improve family housing conditions, fund child's education/childcare, or invest in the mother's retirement fund. This study evaluates the impact of MC eligibility on various child health and developmental outcomes, household consumption patterns, and housing quality. 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. However, children living in MC-eligible families were also more likely to report reduced socialisation. Heterogeneity analysis by child gender, household poverty status, and urban/rural residence suggests that MC incentives may have had a differential impact on some analysed outcomes. Results are robust to different polynomial and nonparametric RDD specifications.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- 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
- Population
- Russian families with two or more children, eligible from January 2007 onwards, analysed using longitudinal data 2010-2017
Key finding
Small improvement in child health status among MC-eligible children