This paper shows how a theory-consistent demand system can be used to quantify recipient welfare under in-kind and cash transfers. Since welfare under an in-kind subsidy depends on the extent to which the transfer is extra-marginal, I compute the shadow prices at which a recipient would be as...

This paper studies the effects of cash versus in-kind transfers on child labor. Using data from a program which randomly transferred either cash or a basket of food to poor households in Mexico, I find that the cash transfer reduced children's work participation by a significantly larger margin...

Recent studies have linked transfers from Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades (formerly PROGRESA) to improvements in child development (Fernald, Gertler, and Neufeld 2008, 2009) but this work has been crit icized as failing to account for endogeneity of the transfers. We...

Siblings can slow child development, but distinguishing intrinsic from economic circumstances has been more difficult. The grants of the Oportunidades Mexican welfare program allo w us to test this linkage. We investigate whether transfers increase firstborn characteristics faster than other...

This paper provides an overview of the political and economic context under which Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades was introduced to prelude the emergence of social assistance in Latin America. The paper identifies four distinctive features of the programme that were revolutionary in their own...

In 2002 the Mexican government began a very large expansion of government-funded healthcare for the poor - specifically, people not employed in the formal sector. The program, Seguro Popular (SP), was rolled out sequentially across different areas in Mexico. This paper uses the variation in...

In 2002, the Mexican government began a tremendous financial effort to provide health insurance, Seguro Popular (SP), to the 50 million uninsured in Mexico. In doing so, the states and municipalities offered virtually free health insurance to uncovered self-employed and informal salaried workers...

This paper provides an overview of the political and economic context under which Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades was introduced to prelude the emergence of social assistance in Latin America. The paper identifies four distinctive features of the programme that were revolutionary in their own...

We investigate the impact of a unique anti-poverty program in Mexico on health outcomes. The program, PROGRESA, combines a traditional cash transfer program with financial incentives for families to invest in human capital of children. Our analysis takes advantage of a controlled randomized...

This study considers the effects of the kingpin strategy, an approach to fighting organized crime in which law-enforcement efforts focus on capturing the leaders of the criminal organization, on community violence in the context of Mexico's drug war. Newly available historical data on...