DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS ISSN 1441-5429 DISCUSSION PAPER 23/16 Poverty graduation with cash transfers: a randomized evaluation ∗ Vilas J. Gobin † , Paulo Santos ‡ and Russell Toth § Abstract: We examine the impact of the Rural Entrepreneur Access Program (REAP), a poverty graduation program that combines multiple interventions with the aim of promoting en- trepreneurship among ultra-poor women. The program emphasizes cash transfers (rather than asset transfers) to ultra-poor women, in addition to business skills training, business mentoring and savings. Participation in each of three rounds of the program was randomly determined through a public lottery. In the short-to-medium-run we find that the program has a positive and significant impact on income, savings, asset accumulation, and food security that are similar to more traditional poverty graduation programs that rely on asset transfers. Key words: Poverty graduation, Cash transfers, Entrepreneurship, Ultra-poor, Field ex- periment, Africa JEL classification: C93, D13, J24, O12, O13, Q12 ∗ We thank Gaurav Datt, Hee-Seung Yang, Asadul Islam, Andreas Leibbrandt and Dean Karlan for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The data used in this study were supplied by The BOMA Project. We thank staff of The BOMA Project especially Kath- leen Colson, Ahmed Omar, Meshack Omarre, Fredrick Learapo, Sabdio Doti, Bernadette Njoroge, Nate Barker, and Alex Villec for their assistance in data collection as well as in facilitating the first author’s stay in Kenya. All analyses, interpretations or conclusions based on these data are solely that of the authors. The BOMA Project disclaims responsibility for any such analyses, interpretations or conclusions. † PhD Candidate, Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Corresponding author (e-mail: vilas.gobin@monash.edu; tel:+61 3 9903 4511) ‡ Senior Lecturer, Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. § Lecturer, Economics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. © 2016 Vilas J. Gobin, Paulo Santos and Russell T oth All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author monash.edu/ business-economics ABN 12 377 614 012 CRICOS Provider No. 00008C