About

Lisa A. Gennetian is the Pritzker Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies and a Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She serves as the Director of Graduate Studies in the Sanford School of Public Policy PhD Program and is an Affiliate of the Center for Child and Family Policy. Additionally, she is a Core Faculty Member at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. Her work focuses on early learning policy and child and family policy issues, contributing to discussions on national investments in children, as evidenced by her participation in public policy discussions such as the Policy 360 podcast.

Research topics

• Economic growth
• Economics
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Geography
• Finance
• Political Science
• Developmental psychology
• Neuroscience
• Actuarial science
• Public economics
• Demographic economics
• Business
• Socioeconomics

Selected publications

• Parental investment across neighborhood contexts: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial of poverty reduction

  Child Development · 2026-01-29

  articleOpen access

  This study investigated how low-income parents with infants and toddlers make differing caregiving investments depending on neighborhood conditions. It leverages a randomized controlled trial in which 1,000 low-income mothers and newborns (Mage = 27; 42% Black; 41% Hispanic; 10% White; 2018-2022) received unconditional cash transfers of $333 or $20 per month. Mothers' addresses were linked with census tract-based measures of "opportunity" for economic mobility. Parents in -lower-opportunity neighborhoods who received larger cash transfers engaged their child in more enriching activities and purchased more child-focused goods than parents who received the cash transfers in higher-opportunity neighborhoods (effect sizes of .12 and .09 more as opportunity decreased by 1 SD). These results suggest that parents compensate for challenging neighborhood conditions with increased caregiving investments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Longitudinal Epigenome-Wide Association Study of a Randomized Trial of Unconditional Cash Transfers

  Open Science Framework · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access

  Individuals who have fewer economic resources and lower education tend to have an earlier onset of various diseases and a shorter lifespan compared with their more affluent and highly educated peers. Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have linked socioeconomic disadvantage to differential DNA methylation (DNAm) at DNA locations involved in inflammatory, metabolic, and aging pathways. In this preregistered analysis plan, we leverage a randomized controlled intervention design from the Baby’s First Years Study where mothers with low incomes were randomly assigned to receive monthly cash gifts of either $333 or $20 during the first 76 months of their child’s life to examine the causal effects of unconditional cash transfer on DNAm. Specifically, we will conduct an epigenome wide association analysis (EWAS) separately for mothers and children comparing effects of high- versus low-cash gift groups on the methylome, identify overlaps with differentially methylated sites from measurement when BFY focal children were age 4 (based on earlier pre-registration https://osf.io/4djtw/files/xftsz), and analyze longitudinal DNAm changes between BFY focal child ages 4 and 6 by treatment assignment. For identified differentially methylated sites, we will evaluate genomic location and functional annotation to characterize implicated biological pathways.

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of a monthly unconditional cash transfer on child brain activity: A 4-year follow-up

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-01-23

  preprintOpen access

  Early childhood poverty is associated with neurodevelopmental differences, but causal evidence linking income to brain development is sparse. In the present study, we examine whether four years of monthly unconditional cash transfers to mothers experiencing low income cause differences in their preschoolers’ brain activity. Shortly after giving birth, mothers were randomized to receive $333/month or $20/month. We find no impact on our primary preregistered outcome (an aggregated index of mid-to-high-frequency brain activity) or our secondary preregistered outcome frontal gamma power. In additional analyses that were part of our pre-registered analytic plan, we find that preschoolers in the high-cash gift group have higher alpha power than those in the low-cash gift group, but no differences in theta, beta, or gamma power. These findings suggest monthly unconditional cash transfers may have impacts on children’s alpha power during the preschool years, although this evidence needs further investigation and replication.

  Publisher

• How unconditional cash transfer policies impact young children and parents in the US: A systematic review and meta-analysis

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Children in the US experience dramatically heightened likelihood of exposure to poverty and income inequality compared to peers in other wealthy nations, with significant negative repercussions for children’s development and family wellbeing. In response, efforts have emerged to test new policy levers seeking to improve family economic resources and hence children’s development, including unconditional cash transfer (UCT) policies- programs which provide money to individuals or families without behavioral conditions- which have shown promise in numerous other countries. It is essential to rigorously assess the effectiveness of these rapidly expanding policies to delineate impacts on children and families. Despite the rapid growth of UCT programs in the US, evidence from these programs has not yet been systematically reviewed. Prior reviews on UCT programs have primarily focused on LMICs, while existing reviews of UCT programs in the United States are all literature or scoping reviews that map the field and summarize general findings. Building on this prior work, our project will conduct a meta-analysis of US UCT programs’ impacts on child and family outcomes and a systematic review of their policy goals and designs. The project also broadens the scope of child outcomes examined in prior US-based reviews, which have focused primarily on health. In addition to the child and maternal physical and mental health outcomes emphasized in earlier reviews, our project will synthesize evidence on cognitive (e.g., early language skills), socioemotional (e.g., behavioral problems), and educational domains (e.g., enrollment) that have been measured in US UCT programs’ evaluation. Moreover, the project will examine age-related heterogeneity to assess whether children who receive UCTs during early childhood experience greater benefits than those in other developmental periods. Prior reviews have either not examined age differences or have focused on a single developmental stage, such as adolescence, with none assessing differences in policy impacts and designs across developmental periods. Finally, beyond family economic, mental health, and parenting outcomes commonly examined in UCT evaluations, our project will synthesize emerging evidence on parental psychological resilience, such as parents’ hope and agency. Prior research suggests that UCTs may promote positive parental experiences related to autonomy and dignity, which may differ from those associated with traditional income support or conditional cash transfer programs. Several UCT program evaluations have documented these experiences qualitatively, with a smaller number also measuring them quantitatively. Our project will provide a systematic synthesis of this understudied pathway through which UCT may influence child development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Net Worth Poverty in Childhood: How Duration and Timing Affect Educational Outcomes

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-06-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  Very low household wealth, or net worth poverty (NWP), is the modal form of poverty for American children, yet little is understood about how it is experienced across childhood or its associations with children's human capital accumulation.Using data from the 1999-2021 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics on a cohort of children followed from birth to age 20, this study examines the influence of NWP exposure and duration across a child's life course on high school graduation and college attendance.Findings show that through age 18, children experienced more frequent and enduring spells of net worth poverty than income poverty.NWP was negatively associated with high school graduation and college attendance independent of the effects of income poverty.Effects were more pronounced for college attendance than for high school graduation, perhaps reflecting the resource-intensive nature of college.The negative effects of NWP were most pronounced for the 31% of the sample that was NWP for at least four waves.The timing of NWP relative to developmental stage did not seem to matter, as children were at risk regardless of the age at which they experienced net worth poverty.

  PublisherDOI

• Unconditional Cash and Intimate Partner Violence

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Black Reparations and Child Well-Being: A Framework and Policy Considerations

  2025-01-23

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We offer a child-centric framework for reparations with considerations for policy and implications for child descendants of enslaved African Americans. We apply economic theory of human capital integrated with the theories of bioecological developmental systems to illustrate the multilayered aspects of harm from the legacy of slavery and racism. Our curation of estimates shows that relative to white peers, black children bear more than double the risk in outcomes unfavorable to educational and economic prosperity from birth through young adulthood. We also find that enduring racial wealth differences are larger among households with children than without children, with the child household racial wealth gap in 2019 remaining comparable to that seen 60 years ago. Simulations suggest that a government wealth transfer of approximately $120,000 per black child during early childhood reduces the black-white gap in high school graduation by 13 percentage points and increases college attendance by 26 percentage points. A review of existing U.S. reparations initiatives shows that few include direct financial transfers or other forms of investments specifically for black families or children. Based on a contemporary survey, we find that black parents with young children express support for reparations in the form of direct cash payments as well as other forms of financial assistance.

  PublisherDOI

• State TANF Policies and Practices, Administrative Burdens, and Latino Families

  2025-01-23

  report
  PublisherDOI

• Cash Transfers and Their Effect on Maternal and Young Children’s Health

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2025-06-16 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Mothers and children in low-income households are more likely to experience worse mental and physical health than those from higher-income households. Objective: To determine the effect of 4 years of monthly unconditional cash transfers on the mental health of mothers with low-income and the physical health of mothers and children. Design, Setting, and Participants: This was a parallel-group, randomized clinical trial conducted from May 2018 to July 2023. Mother-infant dyads were recruited (May 2018-June 2019) from postpartum wards in 12 hospitals in 4 cities: Omaha, Nebraska; Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota; New Orleans, Louisiana; and New York, New York. Data were analyzed from September 2023 to February 2025. Interventions: Mothers were randomly assigned to receive either a high-cash gift ($333 per month) or a low-cash gift ($20 per month) on debit cards. The cash gifts continued for the first 6 years of their children's lives. Data analyzed here were collected after 4 years of monthly transfers. Main Outcomes and Measures: Outcomes were preregistered and measured around the child's fourth birthday. Maternal outcomes included depression, anxiety, and body mass index (BMI). Child outcomes included age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile and maternal report of child health (overall health, times sick in the past year, and presence of chronic health conditions). Results: A total of 1000 mother-infant dyads (mean [SD] maternal age, 27.0 [5.8] years) were included in this study. Among those mothers, 400 were randomly assigned to receive the $333 high-cash gift and 600 received the $20 low-cash gift on debit cards. Data were available from 891 mother-child dyads. No statistically detectable group differences were found in maternal depressive symptoms (effect size [ES], 0.04; 95% CI, -0.08 to 0.17; P = .51), anxiety (ES, 0.12; 95% CI, -0.02 to 0.25; P = .09), or BMI (ES, -0.06; 95% CI, -0.21 to 0.09; P = .42). In addition, there were no statistically detectable group differences in child BMI percentile (ES, -0.03; 95% CI, -0.17 to 0.12; P = .73) or overall child health (ES, 0.08; 95% CI, -0.07 to 0.22; P = .30). Conclusions and Relevance: Monthly unconditional cash transfers totaling approximately $15 000 over 4 years to mothers with low incomes did not improve maternal mental health, maternal or child BMI, or maternal report of children's health. These results could reflect the absence of causal connections between cash transfers and health, the possibility that impacts of early childhood income may not appear until later in life, or that an 18% increase in income is insufficient to overcome the structural vulnerabilities associated with poverty that contribute to health. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03593356.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Research Note on Unconditional Cash Transfers and Fertility in the United States: New Causal Evidence

  Demography · 2025-03-28 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  As cash transfer policies have gained traction in recent years, interest in how financial resources could impact fertility has also grown. Increasing an individual's purchasing power with additional economic resources, such as those provided in unconditional cash transfers, might better enable parents to meet their fertility and reproductive goals, whether those goals are to become pregnant and give birth or to avoid or terminate pregnancies. In this research note, we provide new experimental evidence of the causal impact of a monthly unconditional cash transfer on fertility-related outcomes for U.S. families with at least one young child and low incomes. We find trends of increased pregnancy after three years but no corresponding impacts on births, miscarriages, or terminations. Our findings might indicate that modest cash transfers to mothers with low incomes in the United States are unlikely to have substantial impacts on fertility.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Household Income and Child Development in the First Years of Life

  NIH · $12.9M · 2017–2028

• Behavioral Insights, Maternal Attention, and Early Language Resources for Low Income Infants

  NIH · $159k · 2017–2019

• NIH Grant R03HD047034

  NIH · $133k · 2006

Frequent coauthors

• Greg J. Duncan

  63 shared

• Jens Ludwig

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  51 shared

• Jeffrey R. Kling

  45 shared

• Lisa Sanbonmatsu

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  35 shared

• Katherine Magnuson

  33 shared

• Lawrence F. Katz

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  33 shared

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa

  32 shared

• Kimberly G. Noble

  Columbia University

  30 shared

Education

• PhD, Economics

  Cornell University

  1998