"Using data that enables us to distinguish between the different components of program participation (i.e., knowledge, application, and acceptance), we investigate the determinants of household behavior and program implementation in a social safety-net program that combines administrative and...

In this paper we investigate whether a conditional cash transfer program such as the Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) can simultaneously combat the problems of low school attendance and child work. PROGRESA is a new program of the Mexican government aimed at...

The authors use individual observations from a panel of families during the period of the peso crisis in Mexico to investigate whether and how labor market shocks, as proxied by changes in the gender- and age-specific unemployment rates in the metropolitan area of the household, affect the...

We investigate the hypothesis that conditioning transfers to poor families on school attendance leads to a reallocation of household resources which enhances the human capital of the next generation, via the effect of the conditionality on the shadow price of human capital and (possibly) via the...

Participation in social programs, such as clubs and other social organizations, results from a process in which an agent learns about the requirements, benefits, and likelihood of acceptance related to a program, applies to be a participant, and, finally, is accepted or rejected. We propose a...

Common sense suggests that healthier people are more productive and wealthier people can obtain things that make them healthier. This book asks whether investments in health also affect productivity and how public policy can influence this relationship. These questions are probed through a...

This paper evaluates the impact of three different performance incentives schemes using data from a social experiment that randomized 88 Mexican high schools with over 40,000 students into three treatment groups and a control group. Treatment one provides individual incentives for performance on...

type="main" <p>Immigration is commonly considered to be selective of more educated individuals. Previous US studies comparing the educational attainment of Mexican immigrants in the United States to that of the Mexican resident population support this characterization. Upward educational-attainment...</p>

We analyze in this chapter the development and evaluation of a new genre of social programs termed conditional cash transfer programs which have become widespread across Latin America and are now extending outside the region. Conditional transfer programs typically link monetary transfers to...