How effective are conditional cash transfers? Evidence from Colombia

By O. Attanasio, Erich Battistin, E. Fitzsimons, A. Mesnard, M. Vera-Hernandez. 2005

243 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes are becoming an extremely popular tool for improving the education and health outcomes of poor children in developing countries. An incomplete list of countries in which they are being implemented under the support of the World Bank and other international financial institutions includes Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Turkey and Mozambique. While the implementation details vary from country to country, many are modelled on the Mexican PROGRESA. In a typical CCT, mothers from poor backgrounds receive cash conditional on their promoting certain activities on behalf of their children. For their youngest children - usually those below the age of 6 - the conditionality involves visits to preventive healthcare centres in which their growth is monitored. School attendance is the most common stipulation for receipt of cash transfers for older children - usually those between 7 and 17 years old. This targeting of health and education of children is at the essence of the long-term poverty alleviation objective of CCT programmes. Such transfer programmes are also aimed at the short-term reduction of poverty, through the provision of immediate funds to indigent households. In this Briefing Note, we will focus on the programme Familias en Accion (FA), the CCT implemented by the Colombian government from 2001/02. In particular, we will provide estimates of how the programme has influenced key welfare indicators such as school attendance, child nutrition and health status, as well as household consumption. In this respect, we will update the preliminary results that were reported in Attanasio et al. (2003 and 2004).

Subfields: General Health Professions, Nutrition and Dietetics, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dd6817335fc55df3cc604175c1a57e9011db4209

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In General Health Professions

In Nutrition and Dietetics

In Safety Research

Citations in the corpus

Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods (2017, background): “Attanasio et al. (2005) find in Colombia that food consumption increases proportionately to income.”
The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Programme on Consumption in Colombia (2006, background): “A very detailed description of the baseline survey is contained in Attanasio et al. (2003), while the follow up survey is discussed in Attanasio et al. (2005).”
The Unpaid Care Work–Paid Work Connection (2008, unknown): “In terms of increasing enrolment rates and improving preventive health care there is little debate that the intervention yields positive outcomes, even at times of negative economic shocks (Attanasio et al., 2005, 2006); questions remain, however.”
Cash Transfers, Conditions, and School Enrollment in Ecuador (2008, background): “On Mexico, see Schultz (2004) and Behrman, Sengupta, and Todd (2005); on Colombia, see Attanasio and others (2005); on Nicaragua, see Maluccio and Flores (2004); on Honduras, see Glewwe and Olinto (2004).”
Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Trial (2011, background): “…Saavedra 2008; and Felipe Barrera-Osorio et al. 2011), conditional cash or in-kind transfers to families who send their kids to school (see, e.g., Attanasio et al. 2005; Jere R. Behrman, Piyali Sengupta, and Petra Todd 2005; Paul Glewwe * Attanasio: Department of Economics, University College…”
Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient (2015, unknown): “…programs serve to transfer funds to low-income individuals and have been shown to reduce poverty (Fiszbein and Schady 2009) and to improve educational outcomes (Schultz 2004; Glewwe and Olinto 2004; Maluccio and Flores 2005) and access to health services (Gertler 2000, 2004; Attanasio et al. 2005).”
Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs Worldwide (2017, unknown): “…funds to low-income individuals and have been shown to have led to reductions in poverty (Fiszbein and Schady 2009) and to have positive effects on education (Schultz 2004, Glewwe and Olinto 2004, Maluccio and Flores 2005) and health services (Gertler 2000, Gertler 2004, Attanasio et al. 2005).”