Innovative features in poverty reduction programmes : an impact evaluation of chile solidario on households and children

Abstract

The Chile Solidario programme is an innovative conditional cash transfer (CCT) in the Latin American context, aimed at addressing specifically the multidimensional nature of poverty. This paper, using data from the Panel Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN) Survey for the years 2001 and 2006, presents an impact evaluation of this programme. Using matching techniques to compare participants in the programme with a control group, and a difference-in-differences estimator, we evaluate its impact on various socioeconomic dimensions and results at the household and child level are differentiated. At the household-level, we find that the programme has a significant impact on lifting families out of extreme poverty and that it does not have disincentive effects on labour participation. For children, we find that it has contributed to increasing participation in school for those between the ages of 6 and 15?years, and to increased enrolment with the public health services. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.