Ex-ante Evaluation of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: The Case of Bolsa Escola

Cash transfers targeted to poor people, but conditional on some behavior on their part, such as school attendance or regular visits to health care facilities, are being adopted in a growing number of developing countries. Even where ex-post impact evaluations have been conducted, a number of policy-relevant counterfactual questions have remained unanswered. These are questions about the potential impact of changes in program design, such as benefit levels or the choice of the means-test, on both the current welfare and the behavioral response of household members. This paper proposes a method to simulate the effects of those alternative program designs on welfare and behavior, based on microeconometrically estimated models of household behavior. In an application to Brazil's recently introduced federal Bolsa Escola program, the authors find a surprisingly strong effect of the conditionality on school attendance, but a muted impact of the transfers on the reduction of current poverty and inequality levels

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bourguignon, Francois, Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Leite, Phillippe G.
Format: Policy Research Working Paper biblioteca
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2002-09
Subjects:ACCOUNT, BENEFICIARIES, CHILD LABOR, CONDITIONALITY, COUNTERFACTUAL, CREDIT CONSTRAINTS, DATA SET, DATA SETS, DECISION-MAKING PROCESS, DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DISPOSABLE INCOME, DROPOUTS, EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS, EQUILIBRIUM, EVALUATION METHODS, EXCHANGE RATES, FOOD POLICY RESEARCH, HEALTH CARE, HOUSEHOLD BEHAVIOR, HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, HOUSEHOLD LABOR, HOUSEHOLD SIZE, HOUSEHOLD SURVEY, HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS, HOUSEHOLD WELFARE, HUMAN CAPITAL, INCIDENCE OF POVERTY, INCOME, INCOME EFFECT, INCOME LEVEL, LABOR MARKET, LOCAL LEVEL, MINIMUM WAGE, NUTRITION, PER CAPITA INCOME, POOR CHILDREN, POOR HOUSEHOLDS, POOR PEOPLE, POVERTY LINE, PROGRAM EFFECTS, PROGRAMS, REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE, RESEARCH INSTITUTE, RURAL AREAS, SAMPLE SIZE, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, SELECTION BIAS, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, STATISTICAL OFFICE, TARGETING, TARGETING TRANSFERS, TRADEOFFS, TRANSPARENCY, URBAN AREAS CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMS, MEANS TESTING, OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, HOUSEHOLD ALLOCATION MECHANISMS, CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMS, URBAN AREAS,
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/10/2874516/ex-ante-evaluation-conditional-cash-transfer-programs-case-bolsa-escola
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19236
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