Livelihoods, Allocation, and Early Childhood Development in Refugee Graduation Programs

With Andrew Zeitlin and Gloria Ayesiga.

Evaluates graduation programs in two Uganda refugee settlements. In Palabek, a program discontinuation left roughly 1,000 treated households alongside 6,000 targeted-but-untreated neighbors, creating a natural experiment on program effects and the opportunity cost of concentrating resources on fewer households. In Kiryandongo, a new 7,000-household program still in its introductory phase allows a randomized staggered rollout of playgroup and coaching components, testing the value of early-childhood add-ons and their effects on women’s labor supply. Study design phase.