Baby's First Years
Baby's First Years is a multi-site randomized controlled trial testing whether unconditional monthly cash payments to low-income mothers causally affect infant brain development, cognition, and family well-being. It is run by a research consortium led by Columbia University together with NYU, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, and UC Irvine. About 1,000 mothers were recruited from postpartum hospital wards in New York City, New Orleans, Omaha, and the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) starting in May 2018 and randomly assigned to a $333/month or $20/month unconditional cash gift delivered via prepaid debit card. The study is funded primarily by private philanthropic foundations along with federal research grant support (including NICHD/NIH). Findings have been published in PNAS and other peer-reviewed journals and are among the most widely cited experimental evidence on cash transfers and child development.
Randomized Controlled Trial, Unconditional Cash Transfer, Infant Brain Development, Child Poverty Research, Multi-University Consortium
Headquarters
- Organization Name
- Baby's First Years Research Consortium (Columbia University, lead institution)
- City
- New York City, New Orleans, Omaha, Minneapolis, St. Paul
- State / Province
- New York, Louisiana, Nebraska, Minnesota
- Country
- United States
Contact
Status & Funding
- Organization status
- Active
- Program status
- Inactive
- Application status
- Timed
- Number of recipients
- 1,000
- Funding type
- Philanthropic, Government, Research Pilot
Benefits
- Currency Type
- Fiat
- Currency
- USD
- Total Amount
- 13,320 USD
- Avg. Per Month
- 333 USD
- Payment frequency
- Monthly
- How long the program lasts
- 40 months
- Distribution Type
- Prepaid Debit Card
- Benefit details
Mothers randomized to the 'high-cash gift' (treatment) group received $333 per month; those in the 'low-cash gift' comparison/control group received $20 per month -- the $20 payment is a nominal control-group amount, not a lesser benefit tier, and is central to the study's RCT design. Funds were delivered unconditionally via prepaid debit card with no restrictions on use. Payments began shortly after a child's birth (from May 2018) and continued monthly for roughly the first 40 months of the child's life per program design, though exact end dates varied by enrollment cohort and were reportedly affected by COVID-19-related delays (disbursements concluding by 2023). Using the 40-month duration, the treatment group's nominal total transfer is about $13,320 per participant versus about $800 for the control group.
Eligibility
Overview
- Eligibility details
Eligible participants were mothers who had just given birth at partnering hospitals in one of the four study sites (New York City, New Orleans, Omaha metro area, and the Twin Cities) during the 2018-2019 recruitment window. Households were required to have income at or below the federal poverty line at the time of enrollment. Consenting, eligible mothers were randomly assigned to the $333 or $20 monthly payment group as part of the RCT design. Participation also required ongoing engagement with the study's research protocol (surveys, home visits, and child assessments including EEG). Enrollment is closed; this was a fixed-sample research study, not an open, ongoing benefit program.
Demographics
- Sex
- Female
- Gender
- Female
Family
- Family Status
- Parent
- Number of dependents (minimum)
- 1
Financial
- Income as % of Federal Poverty Level
- 100 %
Geography
- US states covered
- New York, Louisiana, Nebraska, Minnesota
- Countries covered
- United States
- Cities covered
- New York City, New Orleans, Omaha, Minneapolis, St. Paul
- Residency of Target Geography
- Yes
Participation
- Research / data sharing
- Required
- Research / participation requirements
The program is a research study managed by a multi-university consortium -- Columbia University (lead institution of the study's contact principal investigator), together with NYU, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, and UC Irvine. Participation required mothers to complete periodic research assessments, including surveys on spending, parenting, and maternal mental health, home visits, and infant EEG (brain activity) recordings and cognitive/developmental testing at multiple ages; participation in these research assessments was a required condition of enrollment, not optional. The flagship finding, published in PNAS (Troller-Renfree et al., 2022), reported that infants in the $333/month group showed more high-frequency relative to low-frequency brain activity than infants in the $20/month group -- among the first pieces of experimental evidence that income itself can causally affect infant brain activity. Other publications from the study cover family spending patterns, maternal labor supply, and parenting/stress outcomes.
Application Process
- How to apply
Closed RCT -- mothers were recruited in person at partnering hospital maternity wards in the four study sites during the 2018-2019 enrollment window; there is no ongoing public application process.
- Selection process
Eligible low-income mothers who gave birth at partnering hospitals were invited to enroll shortly postpartum and then randomly assigned to receive either the $333/month (treatment) or $20/month (control) unconditional monthly payment for the study period.
