Alleviating Time Poverty among the Working Poor: A Pre-Registered Longitudinal Field Experiment

Poverty entails more than a scarcity of material resources—it also involves a shortage of time. To examine the causal benefits of reducing time poverty, we will conduct a longitudinal field experiment in an urban slum in Kenya with a sample of working mothers, a population who is especially likely to experience severe time poverty. Participants will receive vouchers to use on services designed to reduce their burden of unpaid labor. The effect of these vouchers will be compared against in-kind vouchers that do not save time, equivalently valued unconditional cash transfers, and a neutral control condition. Using a pre-post design, we will measure whether time-saving vouchers influence subjective well-being and perceived stress. Additionally, we will explore the causal effects of reducing time poverty on cognitive functioning and economic decision making. This research tests a new model of economic aid that recognizes both financial and temporal constraints.