Much of the debate about conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes revolves around the issues of targeting and conditionalities. Despite the many impact evaluations of CCT programmes, mostly in Latin America, there is little evidence on either the effect of the cash alone or the value added by...

In Brazil?s urban areas, job opportunities determine economic mobility and poverty. But not every job provides enough earnings to take families out of poverty. Jobs for poor workers are scarce in the formal sector. To improve their income, the poor resort to informal, unregistered jobs that are...

By the second half of 2006, Brazil?s Bolsa Família Programme (Programa Bolsa Família, PBF) had reached its pre-fixed target of covering 11 million families. That target was revised in January 2009, when an increase in coverage was authorised, expanding it to 12.5 million. Since the PBF?s...

One of the goals of targeted conditional cash transfer programmes is to increase the human capital of their beneficiaries. Were it not for that, the existence of conditionalities would not make sense. The rationale is clear: the transfer alleviates poverty today, and this condition sets families...

Targeted and Conditioned Cash Transfers (CCTs) began hesitatingly and somewhat chaotically in Brazil in 1995 and have grown in relevance ever since. From 1995 to 2003, there were many CCT programs, run by all levels of government and, within the federal government, by five different ministries,...

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The economics profession has long debated whether there is a trade-off between growth and equity. Countries that pursued inequality-reducing strategies have been warned that growth will be affected, and hence that poverty increases. The harbingers of doom advocated a growth-focused strategy....