Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: the Emergence and Diffusion of Pro-Poor Social Policy in Latin America

This is a Microlinks community contribution.

Alessandra Stachowski explores conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs in Latin America. CCT programs deliver many desirable outcomes, such as increasing school enrollment and attendance, raising household consumption, reducing income poverty, and increasing the utilization of health services. However, what are the unintended consequences of such programs? This thesis highlights the unintended consequences of such programs, particularly on enhancing the lives of female beneficiaries as well as undermining social cohesion between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. It also attempts to identify the causal pathways that led to the implementation of targeted, conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America.