TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Demirci, Murat
AU  - Foster, Andrew
AU  - Kirdar, Murat Güray
        TI  - Cash Transfers, Diet Quality, and Child Growth Among Refugee Children: Evidence from Turkey’s ESSN Program
        PY  - 2026/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18731
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18731
        AB  - This study examines the impact of the world’s largest humanitarian unconditional cash transfer program targeting refugees—the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) program—on child nutrition and growth outcomes. Using the 2018 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey, which includes a representative sample of Syrian refugees, and employing a regression discontinuity design, we assess the program’s effects on child growth—measured by height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), and weight-for-height (WHZ), including their extreme values—and on child-level nutrition, measured across five major food categories. We find that receiving cash transfers increases HAZ by 0.6 to 0.8 standard deviations. Additionally, the transfers reduce the incidence of both underweight and overweight status based on WAZ scores. WHZ scores and the incidence of overweight status based on WHZ also decline. Examining the program's impact on nutrition, we find a significant reduction in children’s energy-dense, nutrient-poor food
consumption, consistent with the decrease in overweight incidence. Overall, the ESSN program
improves food consumption patterns among refugees, leading to better child growth outcomes.
        KW  - refugees
KW  - cash transfers
KW  - anthropometrics
KW  - nutrition
KW  - program evaluation
KW  - Turkey
        ER  -