This paper shows why, under incomplete information, regulatory practices that alter market prices can redistribute resources more efficiently than cash transfers. In our model the representative citizen cares about a project that benefits a special interest. An example of such a project is the adoption of accessibility devices regulated by the American with Disabilities act. The project can be ...

This paper provides evidence against the argument that the rich prevent the poor from obtaining public education in unequal developing democracies. In Brazilian municipalities with low median incomes, voters are significantly less likely to reelect incumbent candidates from parties that increased the number of local public primary schools during their terms. This is not true for municipalities ...

Following initiation of Progresa in Mexico in 1997, there has been an extraordinary proliferation of conditional cash transfers (CCT) programs oriented at social protection across the world. At the Third International Conference on CCT, the World Bank identified programs in progress in 20 countries, with a total annual budget of US$8.25 billion (World Bank, 2006). Many other countries are showi...

Food-based safety net programs support adequate consumption and contribute to assuring livelihoods. They differ from other safety net programs in that they are tied to the provision of food, either directly, or through cash-like instruments (food stamps, coupons) that may be used to purchase food. Since food provided through a safety net program may be substituted for a household’s current cons...

H ow much reduction in inequality and poverty does latin america accomplish through taxes and transfers? How progressive1 are revenue-collection and social-spending patterns? an in-depth fiscal incidence analysis applied to argentina’s urban areas, where three-fourths of the population lives, as well as to Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and uruguay, finds the following: 1. the extent of income ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of parental marital status, marital history, and family type on intergenerational living arrangements and adult children's time and cash transfers to their unpartnered disabled elderly parents. METHODS We used data from the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old survey to estimate the joint probabilities that an adult...

In this Perspective on the research article by William Rudgard and colleagues, Priya Shete and coauthor discuss the challenges of measuring the impact of social protection programs such as cash transfers.

The international trend toward investing in social protection in poor countries has reached sub-Saharan Africa, taking on a new urgency as HIV and AIDS interact with other drivers of poverty to simultaneously destabilize livelihoods systems and family and community safety nets. A new focus on the vulnerability of families, and threats to the human capital of children with lifelong and intergene...