Beyond Short-Term Relief: Long-Term Trajectories of Cash Transfer Programs in Latin America
Conditional Cash Transfer programs have become one of the most widely adopted anti-poverty policies in Latin America. In contrast to welfare transfers that link cash transfers to work requirements, Conditional Cash Transfer programs only require families to take their children to school and to health check-ups to receive the benefits. This project examines the evolution of Conditional Cash Transfer programs in five Latin American countries – Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru – between 1995 and 2025. The study has three objectives:
- to document long-term trajectories in program characteristics and impacts;
- to test competing explanations for program expansion and retrenchment, focusing on fiscal pressures, electoral incentives, partisan ideology, and institutional design; and
- to assess how program architecture affects the vulnerability of Conditional Cash Transfer programs to gradual institutional change.
By highlighting policy design choices associated with CCT program stability the research will provide practical insights for policymakers designing or reforming anti-poverty programs in national contexts.
Luciana de Souza Leão, assistant professor of sociology