A great World Bank blog post by Senior Economist David Evans on whether cash transfers given to the poor are wasted on alcohol and cigarettes. After reviewing 44 estimates of spending on alcohol and tobacco from 19 studies and 13 interventions (including Oportunidades/PROGRESA), David finds that the vast majority of estimates (82%) are negative. He concludes: "We should stop worrying that the poor are going to spend (or “waste”) their transfer income on alcohol and tobacco. They aren’t." This is good news for those of us interested in the overwhelmingly positive effects of cash transfers on health and welfare, including their potential for HIV prevention. However, this analysis was limited to alcohol and tobacco expenditures among households who were beneficiaries of government-run anti-poverty programs. In the HIV/AIDS realm, a study by Kohler and Thornton (2012) found that Malawian men given cash transfers were more likely to engage in risky sex shortly after receiving the transfer, although this finding has luckily not been replicated in other studies.