Study: “Women, Children, and the Dynamics of Conditional Cash Transfers”
PI: Farfan, Gabriela
Affiliation: Duke University
Funding Partner: IIE
Project Dates:
Start: 2011
End: 2013
Geographic Location: Mexico

Description: Using population-level data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS), researchers examine the impact on child health of a large‐scale conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades. This anti-poverty program puts additional resources in the hands of women and their families and encourages parents to invest in human capital of their children. Program income accounts for about 25 percent of total resources in beneficiary households. Researchers isolate causal impact of the program on child health by exploiting insights from the biology of child growth in combination with the timing of the rollout of Oportunidades and the panel dimension of MxFLS. Height for age among children exposed during the first 3 years of life is contrasted with similar children who were not exposed. Consistent with previous evidence, this analysis finds positive and sizable effects on children who live in rural communities incorporated at the beginning of the intervention. In contrast, the impact of the program in rural localities incorporated later in time and in suburban and urban communities are, at best, very modest.

Research Outputs:
Farfan, Gabriela, Genoni, Maria E., Rubalcava, Luis, Teruel, Graciela & Thomas, Duncan. (2011). Oportunidades and its Impact on Child Nutrition (Doctoral dissertation). Duke University, Durham, NC.