In 2008, a team of PEP researchers in Argentina set out to evaluate the impact of an education reform policy (Ley Federal de Educacion, LFE), implemented by the Argentinian government in 1994, on labor perspectives for low-income youth in the country.  The policy aimed primarily at increasing schooling by extending compulsory education of 2 additional years. As it turns out, the evidence yielded by the empirical study shows that those poor young people who were educated under the LFE derive no benefits in terms of better wages or greater integration into the labor market today. Find out how the researchers explain such failure and their recommendations to improve future policy interventions - i.e. for education to induce better employment perspectives for low-income youth - through the following publications:

The Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has developed data collection tools that take into account the “missing dimensions of poverty”, according to Sen’s capability approach.  A team of local researchers in Chad were granted PEP support to conduct such a survey at the household level in the capital of N’Djamena, in order to assess the dimensions that were thus far ignored in the analysis of poverty and well-being in the country. The results show that the contribution of several of these new “qualitative” dimensions – such as job insecurity or lack of physical safety, for example – is considerable in the general level of deprivation for households’ well-being in Chad. The researchers thus provide specific recommendations for new policies to implement in the context of the country’s National Strategy for Social Protection. For more information on the project’s outcomes, see the related PEP publications:

In this PEP-supported study, a team of local researchers set out to assess the impacts of a cash transfer program on school attendance and child labor in Uruguay. The researchers relied on specific methodological approaches, fostered through the PEP Policy Impact Evaluation Research Initiative (PIERI), to compare outcomes for beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. The team also explores the role of some of the potential impact channels highlighted in the literature on cash transfer programs: household income, adult labor supply and conditionality. The results show that the cash transfers had virtually no impact on the desired outcomes, through either channel, and the researchers provide recommendations to guide policymaking for such interventions to be more effective in the future.

A team of PEP-supported researchers used highly sophisticated impact evaluation and decomposition techniques to assess the relative effects and costs of both monetary and non-monetary components, as well as potential externalities of a conditional cash transfer program in Paraguay (Tekoporã).  The outcomes of the study were substantial and thus reported in two distinct PEP research papers. The first (WP 2011-18 - summarized in policy brief 89) explores the potential effects of externalities by decomposing the observed changes in household behaviors in terms of consumption patterns. The second (WP 2011-19 - PB 90) reports more specifically on the impact of the CCT program Tekoporã on the demand for healthcare and education in Paraguay, and how much of this impact was due to the cash transfers per se and/or to changes in behaviour induced by the program's conditionality and other "non-cash components".  By showing which of the CCT program's components has had effective impact on the desired outcomes and how - or through which channels - the study findings entail crucial implications for policymaking, in terms of program design, implementation and cost-effectiveness.

This PEP impact evaluation initiative aimed to assess how Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs that are initially designed to increase school enrolment/attendance, may affect other (non-educational) outcomes such as teenage pregnancy rates. The study focuses on two large-scale education-oriented CCT programs implemented in Bogota, Colombia, and analyses impact through data collected with a survey on “Sexual Behaviors of Schooled Adolescents”. Findings show that in order to yield such derived, yet desirable outcomes, transfer programs should fulfill very specific conditions in terms of conditionality and allocation timetable. It also suggests that CCT programs may have the potential to contribute to the improvement of multiple dimensions of socioeconomic well-being, but should be carefully designed (evidence-based) in order to positively affect desired outcomes.

In 2009, a team of Uruguayan researchers were selected to take part in a multi-country research initiative, instigated by the PEP Network – with support from AusAID, IDRC and IFPRI - to analyze the impacts of the global financial crisis on poverty and appropriate policy responses in developing countries.  In this particular analysis, the crisis’ impact was found to be most severe on the poorest households of the Uruguayan population (living in extreme poverty), as those closer to the poverty line (moderate poverty) would benefit from the fall in some consumer prices. As the main transmission channels through which the crisis has affected the national economy are trade and foreign capital flows, the impact on exports and fixed investments induce both important reduction in real wages and rise of unemployment, from which the poorest are found to suffer the most. Find out what PEP researchers recommend as appropriate policy responses, for the Uruguayan government to counter the crisis’ negative effects, through the project's reports:

This study applies a specific decomposition technique on data from the 2001 and 2007 Cameroon household consumption survey to explain poverty and inequality trends in the country, while identifying gender-related factors that can explain income disparities and discrimination. From the results, the researchers find that the level of household economic well-being in Cameroon is essentially determined by the following factors: education, health, employment in the formal sector, age cohorts, household size, gender, ownership of farmland and urban versus rural residence. Meanwhile, that list practically encompasses all of those (more specific factors) that were found to explain income disparities between male- and female-headed households. These latter include education, employment in the formal sector, household size and health, to which however, the share of active household members is added as another determinant. From these findings, the researchers conclude that public interventions which encourage education for all, employment and rural development in Cameroon have the most potential to effectively address both poverty and gender-based inequality at the national level.

In the (2007) context of increasing poverty and inequality, the Uruguayan government implemented a major tax reform, whose explicit purpose was to increase (direct) personal income taxes (via increased marginal rates), lower direct/indirect taxes on firms, harmonize employer contributions to social security across sectors and eliminate some highly distorting taxes. A group of local, PEP-supported researchers sought to assess the actual impacts of the reform on socioeconomic well-being in the country, using a combination of CGE modeling and microsimulation approach to analyze the “secondary effects” of these changes on labour markets, poverty and inequality. Overall, they find that, given full implementation of the reform, the “general equilibrium” (or secondary) effects are much greater than direct ones, with significant reduction in poverty incidence and income gaps. The alleviating effect on extreme poverty is essentially due to the introduction of personal income tax.

In this study, a team of PEP Nigerian researchers seek to compare the assessments related to poverty using a variety of conceptions, from traditional money-metric measures to multiple counts of deprivation (including “missing dimensions” of welfare) in order to explore factors that predict poverty. Their analysis is based on survey data collected at the household level in Nsukka, Nigeria. After decomposition, results indicate that i) 70% to 78% of the population in the area should be categorized as deprived or poor and that ii) rather than low income, the major determinants of deprivation are, in fact, large family size, low level of education, poor employment, rural location and poor health.  Researchers thus conclude that, in order to be effective, pro-poor policy initiatives should ensue from an integrated approach that accounts for inter-linkages between the several factors associated with well-being and deprivation.

A team of PEP researchers from the University of Nairobi reveal important complexities in what characterize maternal and child well-being in Kenya, after conducting an analysis using a multidimensional approach to poverty, i.e. including several non-monetary indicators. Determinants include factors related to household and environment living conditions, as well as specific individual characteristics. Plus, maternal and child welfare varies considerable across the country’s districts. Finally, their findings entail important policy insights for improving human capital investments in Kenya. Policy recommendations include the implementation of specific policies and programs that address particular issues identified by the study (e.g. nutritional deficiencies, lack of critical social infrastructure) while taking into account regional distribution. According to their analysis, such policy initiatives from the Kenyan government would have long-term human capital returns and intergenerational effects in the country.

In 1994, a major reform of the Social Security System was implemented in Argentina, as part of the country’s general pursuit of economic modernisation. Among several other features, the reform included the introduction of individual accounts – to be administered by private entities - in the new Pension Funding System. Through a CGE model of the national economy and microsimulation techniques, a team of local PEP researchers  have been able to assess the particular effects of this reform on labor outcomes, poverty and income distribution (from 1994 to 2008). The results show that, when funds are allocated in order to increase investment in physical capital, the Pension Reform has a significant effect on growth while, on the other hand, where funds are used to finance public debt, the effect on growth is negligible. Such evidence on the program’s impacts at the micro level may affect actual government’s decisions in light of recent initiatives to reverse some of the changes introduced in 1994.

Studying the poverty impacts of public investment in education in Burkina Faso, a team of Burkinabe researchers used a CGE model of the national economy to simulate the effects of a 40% increase of government expenditure in basic education through different scenarios. The results show that such an investment would have significant impact, alleviating poverty at the national level, but unevenly among groups. They also clearly demonstrate that the effectiveness of the impact is conditional to the fiscal policy through which the expenditure would be financed by the government.  Find out more on the researchers' findings and specific policy recommendations through the following publications (in French or English).

Using the recently developed technique of Dimensional Scores to provide a fuller characterization of poverty in Cameroon, local PEP researchers were able to measure, distinctively, the level and geographic distribution of poverty in each of the five main welfare dimensions: health, education, monetary income, social infrastructure and living environment. They were also able to identify which socioeconomic factors were determinants for each dimension of poverty and how dimensional interactions may be used to combat poverty more effectively. The study thus entails specific policy recommendations on how to allocate resources among sectors and regions in Cameroon for the most effective impact in terms of poverty alleviation. 

Remittances from overseas workers are often an important share of poor households’ income. As related literature usually focuses on motives to explain remittance behaviour, this study shows that such behaviour are influenced by given norms as well. The results provide empirical evidence that altruism dominates the exchange motives when overseas workers are considered the primary provider of the household. As a secondary breadwinner, the fluctuations of remittance amounts depend on the recipient household’s labor income and thus are afflicted with negative selectivity.  

As poverty analyses in Mali are dominated by the monetary approach, this team of Malian researchers are providing a more detailed characterization of the poor’s living conditions in the country, taking account of several aspects or dimensions of welfare, based on data produced by national surveys in 2001 and 2006. The results show how poverty and inequality have evolved over the period, and how welfare-related non-monetary needs may vary, both among and within the country’s specific regions and social groups. These results are crucial to assist in the formulation of policies aimed to address the population’s basic needs and contribute to the development of human capital. They also provide specific recommendations on how to reduce regional disparities through the expansion of public services and targeted interventions in favour of the most vulnerable groups and priority welfare dimensions.