and district of residence, the province of origin, and reasons for settling in the location. We also included information on the residence of returnees, harmonized across the three data source, including the type, size, and ownership status of the dwelling. The three data sources include information on income, employment, education (for children), food security, and access to health services. These variables allow us to compare living standards in the treatment and control groups.

The cutoff criterion for the reintegration assistance was strictly determined in April 2017.<sup>3</sup> Although the policy change was implemented that month, we have significant data on returnees only starting the following month (May 2017).

Because of harsh winter conditions, UNHCR temporary suspended its voluntary repatriation program from Pakistan between December and March 2017. The process of returns from the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries continued throughout the year. Only 215 households were registered in the VRF between December 2016 and March 2017, representing 0.2 percent of the 89,235 total individual returns between 2016 and 2017.

# **_Second Round of Data Collection_**

Between March and May of 2020, the study team attempted to recontact a sample of 2016–17 returnees from Pakistan to (a) identify whether the impact of reintegration assistance remained significant more than three years post-return and (b) use the same survey tool on returnees who could be part of the regression discontinuity design (RDD) sample. The data collection exercise used returnee phone numbers from UNHCR to conduct follow-up data collection post-return.

Most phone numbers were provided to UNHCR shortly after the returnees crossed the border from Pakistan enroute to resettle in Afghanistan. Because returnees move and change phone numbers as they resettle in Afghanistan, we were able to reach only 16.1 percent of the database of returnee phone numbers and only 6 percent of the returnee population eligible for the study (per their return date). Given this high rate of attrition and the small size of the second-round sample, we use the 2020 data to complement findings from the UNHCR post-return monitoring data.

# **Limitations of the Study**

There are limitations in analyzing results from three data sources, related to differences in questions or levels of aggregation. For example, the sources measure income differently, with the ODR data measuring household income with a categorical variable (five categories) ranging from AFA 3,000 to more than AFA 10,000 and the private firm data measuring the exact household income. The exact measurement of income led to a nonresponse of 35 percent. The minimum possible household income collected by ODR was AFA 3,000 (about $30 using current exchange rates).

Another limitation is the number of months between the sample of $350 recipients and the sample of returnees who received $150. Although the cash assistance was reduced in April 2017, the last surveyed refugees to return before the policy change returned in November 2016 and the first surveyed returnees

> 3 Strict discontinuity refers to a design in which there is a single binary treatment, the assignment variable perfectly predicts the receipt of the treatment, and the probability of treatment jumps from 0 to 1 when the variable crosses a certain threshold. Fuzzy discontinuity refers to a design in which there is imperfect compliance of the rule, meaning that the variable partly crosses a cutoff point, allowing for a smaller jump in the probability of assignment to the treatment at the threshold (not necessarily a sharp 0 to 1 jump).

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