Abstract

Climate change makes extreme weather events more intense and frequent. Traditional responses to climatic shocks often reach households late. In recent years, practitioners have piloted new early response interventions using satellite-based triggers to deliver shock-responsive cash transfers to vulnerable households faster. We present new experimental evidence on the value of shock-responsive cash transfers delivered early in response to extreme weather events. We find that early cash transfers improve welfare in the immediate term and increase the choice set of actions available to households when the crisis hits, although it remains an open question how best to optimize cash transfers to achieve longer-term effects on household resilience.

Practical information