This paper presents some analytical techniques to help policymakers gauge the technical and fiscal feasibility of development targets. While each of the techniques discussed below has deficiencies, taken together they have proven very useful in providing a sense of realism to target setting. The...

Poverty is often regarded as the "root cause" of trafficking, but the linkages between poverty, lack of development and trafficking are complex. For example, there is some evidence to suggest that victims of cross-border trafficking are more likely to originate from middle-income rather than...

The literature suggests Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) and remittances may protect poor households from income risk. We present a theoretical framework that explores how this ‘insurance’ effect can change households’ decision to apply for a loan via changes in credit demand and supply....

Economic and political decisions usually involve a trade-off between efficiency and equality considerations. While some inequality is expected to prevail in our soci- eties, high levels of it are objectionable on various grounds. One of the fundamental roles of government is to collect and...

In this new version of the database we have included pilot social assistance programmes. A number of pilot cash transfer programmes have been introduced in Latin America, Asia and Africa in the last year or so, and a few more are in the design stage. Their scale and rationale suggest there is a...

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs are gaining more and more weight in Latin America's public policy. Although there exists a wide range of literature about the impact of these programs on school matriculation, the reduction in child labour and the improvements in the health status of...

This is the third policy brief from Young Lives about Juntos, the conditional cash transfer programme in Peru which aims, in the short term, to reduce poverty by making a payment of 100 nuevos soles per month to each participating household if they comply with certain conditions intended to...

This paper examines the effects of Chile Solidario programme on labour market outcomes from a gender perspective. Chile Solidario was implemented as the main anti-poverty programme in Chile in 2002. The purpose of this conditional cash transfer is to provide poor families with auxiliary social...

This policy brief uses data from the Young Lives survey in Peru to assess the impact of the conditional cash transfer programme JUNTOS on a group of children who were covered by the programme. These beneficiary children were compared with children who were not covered by JUNTOS, using indicators...

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Oportunidades programme. The switch from cash payments to electronic payments delivered via a bank account is found to have implications in terms of reallocation between...