Business and Economic Research ISSN 2162-4860 2014, Vol. 4, No. 1 www.macrothink.org/ber 289 Welfare Effects of Social Cash Transfers in Chipata and Kazungula Districts of Zambia Gelson Tembo (Corresponding author) Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Zambia, Lusaka P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia E-mail: tembogel@gmail.com Bernadette Chimai Department of Agricultural Economics University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia Nicholas Freeland MASDAR International Consultants, Reading, UK Brian P. Mulenga Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute, Lusaka, Zambia Received: January 10, 2013 Accepted: February 2, 2013 doi:10.5296/ber.v4i1.5532 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ber.v4i1.5532 Abstract This study uses the odds-weighted regression approach and data from two spatially separated social cash transfer (SCT) programs in Zambia to determine the impact of cash transfers on household welfare. The same analytical framework was also applied on sub-samples of poor and relatively less poor households, where the wealth ranking was done using an asset-based index derived through principal components analysis. The results confirm positive SCT effects on per capita consumption expenditure and that the sizes and relative significance of these effects vary by program design and by the household's asset wealth. The effects were especially unambiguously positive and significant for non-food consumption. While the impact on food expenditure was positive and significant in the rural Kazungula SCT program, the impact on