Cash transfer programs induce multiplier effects when recipients put the money they receive to work to generate additional income. The ultimate income effects are multiples of the amounts transferred. This paper analyzes the PROCAMPO program in Mexico, which was introduced to compensate farmers...

This document summarizes 24 months of extensive research by the International Food Policy Research Institute designed to evaluate whether PROGRESA has been successful at achieving its goals. The evaluation analyzes what has been the impact of PROGRESA on education, health, and nutrition as well...

This paper focuses on dynamics within couples, although the authors recognize that dynamics among extended family members and across generations are of substantial interest. Decisions about resource allocations, control over economic resources, whether and how much one works, are all examined.

The diversity of urban areas presents substantial challenges to the validity of information from rapid assessments, yet CARE's experiences in Bangladesh and Tanzania suggest a number of ways that rapid assessment procedures can be strengthened to address these concerns.

This report reevaluates PROGRESA's targeting methods since the program began adding beneficiary households through a process called “densification.” The authors first evaluate PROGRESA's accuracy in targeting both at the community and household levels. Second, they evaluate the targeting in...

This paper assesses how the Programa Nacional de Educacion, Salud, y Alimentacion (PROGRESA) program has affected the school enrollment of Mexican youth in the first 15 months of its operation. PROGRESA provides poor mothers in poor rural communities with education grants, if their children...

How many microfinance institutions (MFIs) exist in the developing world? What are their current performances? In 1999, an International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) team on microfinance conducted a survey on MFIs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in order to offer a new in-depth...

Using both national-sample and program-level census survey data, we evaluate the distributional power of Mexico's Programa Nacional de Educacion, Salud y Alimentacion (PROGRESA) transfers using the so-called distributional characteristic.These transfers are targeted both geographically at...

In this paper we investigate whether a conditional cash transfer program such as the Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) can simultaneously combat the problems of low school attendance and child work. PROGRESA is a new program of the Mexican government aimed at...

This paper examines the relationship between community participation and the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce poverty. We develop some simple analytics that are used to structure a review of the extant literature and motivate the analysis of the impact of participation on the...