This text attempts to estimate the impacts of the Programa Bolsa Família on grade repetition, using matched data from the Single Registry (Cadastro Único, or CadÚnico), the Attendance Project and annual School Census. The authors use three approaches: i) comparing the results for poor...

Brazil's 'Bolsa Família' conditional cash transfer program (BFP) is the most substantial poverty alleviation program in Brazil. It is the biggest program of this kind in the world, reaching more then 13 000 000 families. The BFP awards grants to eligible poor families, allowing increased...

Arguments against means-tested cash transfers for the poor based upon labor supply appear both in the specialized literature and in the media. It is possible to make a microeconomic argument pointing to a reduction in labor supply on the part of beneficiaries of a targeted cash transfer. This...

This text attempts to estimate the impacts of Bolsa Família upon grade repetition using matched data from the Single Registry, the Attendance Project and the annual school censuses. Three approaches are used: i) comparison of results for poor children in the Single Registry with and without the...

In this paper, we estimate a collective model of household consumption and test the restrictions of collective rationality using z-conditional demands in the context of a large Conditional Cash Transfer programme in rural Mexico. We show that the model is able to explain the impacts the...

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...

Conditional Cash Transfer programs are designed to increase human capital in poorer families. They do this directly through incentives and conditions. A further way these programs may influence household decisions is through impacts on preferences. Preferences may change as a result of new habit...

We investigate the short-term labor supply responses to a Conditional Cash Transfers program in Peru. Rather than comparing treated and non-treated households, we examine how benefit recipients change their labor supply after receiving the cash transfer. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous...