Testing Paternalism: Cash versus In-Kind Transfers
通过墨西哥食品援助项目的随机对照试验，检验实物转移相比现金转移是否更有效地改善营养和健康，发现实物转移在总食品消费上无扭曲，但个别食品存在扭曲，且对妇女儿童健康无显著额外益处。
Welfare programs are often implemented in-kind to promote outcomes that might not be realized under cash transfers. This paper tests whether such paternalistically motivated transfers are justified compared to cash, using a randomized controlled trial of Mexico's food assistance program. In relation to total food consumption, the in-kind transfer was infra-marginal and nondistorting. However, the transfer contained ten food items, and there was large variation in the extent to which individual foods were extra-marginal and distorting. Small differences in the nutritional intake of women and children under in-kind transfers did not lead to meaningful differential improvements in health outcomes compared to cash.