IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecr/col070/47520.html

The impact of non-contributory cash transfers on poverty in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Villatoro S., Pablo
  • Cecchini, Simone
  • Mancero, Xavier

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of conditional cash transfers, social pensions and other non-contributory transfers on different indicators of poverty and extreme poverty in Latin America, based on an analysis of household surveys from 15 countries in the region between 2014 and 2017. It is found that in 2017, the combined effect of non-contributory social protection programmes reduced simple regional averages for poverty by 2.0 percentage points and for extreme poverty by 1.7 percentage points, equivalent to relative decreases of 11.8% and 25.9%, respectively. It is also observed that surveys tend to capture fewer recipients of non-contributory transfers than administrative records. This undercapturing, as calculated for Brazil, may lead to underestimation of the impact of programmes, especially on indicators of severity and depth of poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Villatoro S., Pablo & Cecchini, Simone & Mancero, Xavier, 2021. "The impact of non-contributory cash transfers on poverty in Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col070:47520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/47520
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerstin Bruckmeier & Gerrit M�ller & Regina T. Riphahn, 2014. "Who misreports welfare receipt in surveys?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(12), pages 812-816, August.
    2. Guillermo Cruces & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Políticas Sociales para la Reducción de la Desigualdad y la Pobreza en América Latina y el Caribe. Diagnóstico, Propuesta y Proyecciones en Base a la Experiencia Reciente"," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0142, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    3. Verónica Amarante & Mart�n Brun, 2018. "Cash Transfers in Latin America: Effects on Poverty and Redistribution," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2018), pages 1-31.
    4. -, 2021. "CEPAL Review no. 134," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    5. -, 2017. "Linkages between the social and production spheres: Gaps, pillars and challenges," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 42269 edited by Eclac.
    6. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    7. Cecchini, Simone & Madariaga, Aldo, 2011. "Conditional cash transfer programmes: the recent experience in Latin America and the Caribbean," Cuadernos de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 27855 edited by Eclac.
    8. -, 2021. "Revista CEPAL Nº 134," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jara, H. Xavier & Montesdeoca, Lourdes & Colmenarez, María Gabriela & Moreno, Lorena, 2025. "Two decades of tax-benefit reforms in Ecuador: How much have they contributed to poverty and inequality reduction?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. -, 2020. "Universal Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean. Selected texts 2006-2019," Páginas Selectas de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 45093 edited by Eclac, September.
    2. Guillermo Cruces & Gary S. Fields & David Jaume & Mariana Viollaz, 2015. "The growth-employment-poverty nexus in Latin America in the 2000s: Cross-country analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-110, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Roberto Mauricio Sánchez Torres, 2015. "Identificación y caracterización de los trabajadores pobres en Colombia, 2002-2012," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 17(32), pages 295-315, January-J.
    4. Khan, Ahmad Saeed & Paulo, Evânio Mascarenhas & Rocha, Leonardo Andrade & Tabosa, Francisco José Silva, 2021. "Rural employment trends in Brazil: an analysis using dynamic panel models," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    5. Guillermo Cruces & Gary Fields & David Jaume & Mariana Viollaz, 2015. "The growth-employment-poverty nexus in Latin America in the 2000s: Cross-country analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series 110, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Torres Roberto Mauricio Sánchez, 2020. "Poverty and labor informality in Colombia," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, March.
    7. -, 2020. "Social protection for families with children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean: An imperative to address the impact of COVID-19," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 46490 edited by Cepal.
    8. Kerstin Bruckmeier & Katrin Hohmeyer & Stefan Schwarz, 2018. "Welfare receipt misreporting in survey data and its consequences for state dependence estimates: new insights from linked administrative and survey data," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 52(1), pages 1-21, December.
    9. Shijiang Chen & Mingyue Liang & Wen Yang, 2022. "Does Digital Financial Inclusion Reduce China’s Rural Household Vulnerability to Poverty: An Empirical Analysis From the Perspective of Household Entrepreneurship," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    10. Khanna, Neha, 2000. "Measuring environmental quality: an index of pollution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 191-202, November.
    11. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2023. "Land consolidation, rice production, and agricultural transformation: Evidence from household panel data for Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 157-173.
    12. Clarke, Philip & Erreygers, Guido, 2020. "Defining and measuring health poverty," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    13. Nguyen, Cuong, 2003. "A Review of the Relation between Economic Growth, Inequality and Poverty," MPRA Paper 85705, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Teguh Dartanto, 2010. "Volatility of World Rice Prices, Import Tariffs and Poverty in Indonesia : A CGE-Microsimulation Analysis," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 58, pages 335-364, December.
    15. Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2009. "Updating Poverty Maps without Panel Data: Evidence from Vietnam," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 397-418, December.
    16. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Asymptotic and bootstrap inference for inequality and poverty measures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 141-166, November.
    17. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Deutsch, Joseph & Silber, Jacques, 2008. "On the Watts Multidimensional Poverty Index and its Decomposition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1067-1077, June.
    18. -, 2017. "CEPAL Review no. 123," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    19. Valencia Lomelí, Enrique & Cecchini, Simone & Filgueira, Fernando & Lo Vuolo, Rubén M. & Midaglia, Carmen & Olesker, Daniel & Barrientos, Armando, 2014. "Universal social protection, challenges and prospects," Seminarios y Conferencias 46897, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    20. Servaas van der Berg & Ronelle Burger & Megan Louw, 2007. "Post-Apartheid South Africa: Poverty and Distribution Trends in an Era of Globalization," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2007-57, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecr:col070:47520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.