Can poverty alleviation programs crowd-in private support? Short- and Middle-Run Effects of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Inter-Household Transfers

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2116170
AutoresGarcia (0000-0003-4474-8603, Universidad de los Andes), Jorge Cuartas (0000-0002-0451-3298, Harvard University Press)
Año2021
Volumen50
Número3
Páginas511-532
Fecha de publicación2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279420000240
OpenAlexW3026327083
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas29

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become an important component of social assistance in developing countries. CCTs, as well as other cash subsidies, have been criticized for allegedly crowding out private transfers. Whether social programs crowd out private transfers is an important question with worrisome implications, as private support represents an important fraction of households' income and works as a risk sharing mechanism in developing countries. Furthermore, empirical evidence on the effect of public transfers on private transfers is mixed. This paper contributes to the literature by using a unique dataset from the quasi-experimental evaluation of a CCT in Colombia and an empirical strategy that allows us to correct for pre-existing differences between treated and control groups. Our results suggest that the public transfer did not crowd out private transfers, neither in the short-run nor in the middle-run. Instead, it increased the probability of receiving support in cash, in kind, and in non-paid labor from different private sources by approximately 10 percentage points. Moreover, we find that the monetary value of private transfers increased by 32-38% for treated households

Business · Cash · Cash transfers · Conditional cash transfer · Crowding out · Demographic economics · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Empirical evidence · Labour economics · Monetary economics · Poverty · Public economics · Social protection · Subsidy · Transfer (computing) · Agricultural risk and resilience · Finance · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare