Compare methods

	Cash Transfer Evaluation	Theory-Based Impact Evaluation
Field	Development Studies	Development Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1997	2009
Originator	PROGRESA/Oportunidades (Mexico); Santiago Levy; World Bank evaluation programmes	Carol Weiss; Howard White (3ie)
Type	Programme impact evaluation	Evaluation approach / framework
Seminal source	Fiszbein, A., & Schady, N. (2009). Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty. World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. ISBN: 9780821373521	White, H. (2009). Theory-Based Impact Evaluation: Principles and Practice. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 1(3), 271–284.
Aliases	CCT/UCT Impact Evaluation, Conditional Cash Transfer Evaluation, Cash Transfer Impact Assessment, Social Cash Transfer Evaluation	Theory of Change Evaluation, Contribution Analysis, Theory-Driven Evaluation, Causal-Chain Impact Evaluation
Related	4	4
Summary	Cash transfer evaluation is the body of impact-evaluation practice used to measure the effects of giving money directly to poor households — conditional on behaviours such as school enrolment and clinic visits (CCTs) or unconditional (UCTs) — on consumption, schooling, nutrition, health, and broader welfare. Pioneered by Mexico's PROGRESA/Oportunidades programme in the late 1990s, which built a randomised phase-in into its rollout, the field has produced some of the most influential causal evidence in development economics and now spans dozens of countries and hundreds of studies.	Theory-based impact evaluation evaluates a programme by first making explicit the theory of change — the causal chain of assumptions and mechanisms through which inputs are expected to produce outcomes and impacts — and then gathering evidence to test whether each link in that chain holds. Rather than treating the programme as a black box and estimating only the net effect, it asks not just whether a programme worked but why, for whom, and under what conditions. Articulated by Carol Weiss and brought into development practice by Howard White and 3ie, it complements, rather than competes with, counterfactual designs.