Innovative Features in Conditional Cash Transfers

The Chile Solidario programme is an avant garde conditional cash transfer (CCT) in the Latin American context, introducing innovative features aimed at addressing specifically the multidimensional nature of poverty. This paper, using data from the Panel CASEN Survey for the years 2001 and 2006, presents an impact evaluation of this innovative programme. Using matching techniques to compare participants in the programme with a control group, and a difference-in-difference estimator, its impact on various socio-economic dimensions of well-being is evaluated 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 market participation. For children, we find that the programme has contributed to increasing participation in school for those between the ages of 6 and 15, and to increased enrolment with the public health services.