Human development conditional transfer programmes have been adopted by a majority of countries in Latin America to address the intergenerational persistence of poverty. Typically, programmes provide regular and reliable transfers in cash to households in poverty, with transfers conditional on...

The paper explores theoretically and empirically Brazil's tax revenue from a political and political economy perspective. The absence of ‘big bang' reforms to the tax code and tax administration suggests that policy models are less directly relevant to explaining the rise in the tax/GDP ratio....

It has been suggested that Brazil's unexpected successes in the last two decades are the outcome of a new model of development, with strong inclusive growth at its core. The paper reviews the main findings of the IRIBA research programme examining the contribution of macroeconomic stability and...

The paper examines the informational basis of emerging social assistance institutions in low- and middle-income countries. The recent expansion of social assistance presents a challenge to researchers concerned with the development of welfare institutions there. Diversity in practice, the...

Using a panel data set of older people and their households in Brazil and South Africa, the article provides estimates of changes in the poverty status transitions of older people and their ouseholds over time, assessing the extent to which some panel households managed to escape from poverty,...

The paper examines local economy effects of social transfers, by focusing on food consumption and asset holdings of non-eligible households in rural Mexico following the introduction of PROGRESA in 1997. The quasi-experimental nature of the evaluation data collected for the purposes of...

The paper examines labour market outcome effects from participation in Familias en Acción in urban areas, a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. There is considerable interest in the potential impact of antipoverty transfers on labour market outcomes in developing countries. The...

What theory can help us to explain the expansion of social assistance in low and middle income countries? Prevailing theories of welfare institutions, including power resources and varieties of capitalism, were developed to study the welfare institutions that emerged among early industrialisers....