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Evaluating the Impact of Brazil's Bolsa Família: Cash Transfer Programs in Comparative Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Fábio Veras Soares ,
Rafael Perez Ribas  and
Rafael Guerreiro Osório
Fábio Veras Soares
Affiliation:
International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth; Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brasilia, Brazil
Rafael Perez Ribas
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rafael Guerreiro Osório
Affiliation:
International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth, Brasilia, Brazil
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Abstract

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This note reviews the targeting performance of Bolsa Família and its impact on inequality, poverty, consumption, education, health care, and labor force participation. Bolsa Família has several design and implementation characteristics that distance it from a pure human-capital-based conditional cash transfer model. For that reason, we compare the impact of Bolsa Família to that of other conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America, such as in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile. We show that, as have other programs, Bolsa Família has helped reduce inequality and extreme poverty and has improved education outcomes, without having a negative impact on labor force participation. Where the program has failed to have its intended impact, in health and nutrition, supply-side constraints seem to be the principal problem.

Resumo

Resumo

Esta nota resume a performance do Programa Bolsa Família em termos de sua focalização e seu impacto sobre desigualdade, pobreza, consumo, educação, saúde e participação na força de trabalho. O desenho e a implementação do Bolsa Família apresenta características que o distanciam de um programa “puro”de transferência condicionada de renda baseado no capital humano. Por este motivo, nós comparamos o impacto do Bolsa Família com o de outros programas de transferências condicionadas da América Latina, como aqueles do México, Colômbia, Equador e Chile. Nós mostramos que assim como outros programas, o Bolsa Família ajudou a reduzir a desigualdade e a extrema pobreza e teve impactos positivos sobre indicadores educacionais, sem apresentar resultados negativos sobre a participação na força de trabalho. Nas áreas onde resultados positivos não foram encontrados como saúde e nutrição, restrições da oferta parecem ser o principal problema.

Type
Research Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 2010 , pp. 173 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Latin American Studies Association

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