scholarly journals Nonlinear Pricing in Village Economies

Econometrica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orazio Attanasio ◽  
Elena Pastorino
Keyword(s):  
Price Discrimination ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Nonlinear Pricing ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Reduced Form ◽  
Quantity Discounts ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Market Participation ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the prices of basic staples in rural Mexico. We document that nonlinear pricing in the form of quantity discounts is common, that quantity discounts are sizable for basic staples, and that the well‐known conditional cash transfer program Progresa has significantly increased quantity discounts, although the program, as documented in previous studies, has not affected unit prices on average. To account for these patterns, we propose a model of price discrimination that nests those of Maskin and Riley (1984) and Jullien (2000), in which consumers differ in their tastes and, because of subsistence constraints, in their ability to pay for a good. We show that under mild conditions, a model in which consumers face heterogeneous subsistence or budget constraints is equivalent to one in which consumers have access to heterogeneous outside options. We rely on known results to characterize the equilibrium price schedule, which is nonlinear in quantity. We analyze the effect of nonlinear pricing on market participation as well as the impact of a market‐wide transfer, analogous to the Progresa one, when consumers are differentially constrained. We show that the model is structurally identified from data on prices and quantities from a single market under common assumptions. We estimate the model using data on three commonly consumed commodities from municipalities and localities in Mexico. Interestingly, we find that relative to linear pricing, nonlinear pricing is beneficial to a large number of households, including those consuming small quantities, mostly because of the higher degree of market participation that nonlinear pricing induces. We also show that the Progresa transfer has affected the slopes of the price schedules of the three commodities we study, which have become steeper as consistent with our model, leading to an increase in the intensity of price discrimination. Finally, we find that a reduced form of our model, in which the size of quantity discounts depends on the hazard rate of the distribution of quantities purchased in a village, accounts for the shift in price schedules induced by the program.

Income Transfer Policies and Nutritional Condition of Children: An Evaluation of “Bolsa Família”

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mônica Viegas Andrade ◽  
Flávia Chein ◽  
Rafael Perez Ribas ◽  
Jaume Puig-Junoy
Keyword(s):  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Evaluation Research ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Baseline Survey ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the impact of the Bolsa Familia program, a conditional cash transfer program focused on Brazilian poor families, on children‘s nutritional status in a context of low monitoring of conditionalities. The analysis is carried out using data from a baseline survey conducted in 2005, the “Bolsa Família” Impact Evaluation Research. The evaluation is made using the Propensity Score Matchingtechnique. Besides considering observational differences between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of Bolsa Família Program, our empirical strategy also addresses some concerns about informational issues in order to take into account potential endogeneity of the decision to participate in the Program. Our final results show a positive effect of Bolsa Família Program on children nutritional status only whencontrolling for the informational bias and for those children fulfilling educational requirements; however, this positive impact on nutritional status is restricted to BMIfor-age but does not affect height-for-age.

scholarly journals Compulsory education laws or incentives from CCT programs? Explaining the rise in secondary school attendance rate in Argentina

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Edo ◽  
Mariana Marchionni ◽  
Santiago Garganta
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Latin American ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
National Education ◽  
Upper Secondary Education ◽  
The Impact

Argentina has traditionally stood out in terms of educational outcomes among its Latin American counterparts. Schooling of older children, however, still shows room for improvement especially among the more vulnerable. Fortunately, during the last years a sizeable improvement in attendance rates for children aged 15 through 17 took place. This could be related to the 2006 National Education Law that made upper-secondary education compulsory. In this paper, instead, we claim that the Asignación Universal por Hijo (Universal Child Allowance, AUH) -a massive conditional cash transfer program implemented in 2009 in Argentina- may be mostly responsible for this improvement. Using a difference-in-difference strategy we estimate that the program accounts for a 3.9 percentage point increase in the probability of attending secondary school among eligible children aged 15 through 17. The impact seems to be led by boys and is more relevant for children living in larger families where the head of household has a lower educational level.

scholarly journals Impacto del programa Asignación Universal por Hijo en los resultados educativos y las tareas de los estudiantes en Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Monserrat Serio ◽  
Martina Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
School Tasks

This paper explores the effect of the principal conditional cash transfer program known as Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH) of Argentina on educational outcomes such as attendance, performance in reading and mathematics, and grade repetition. Also, we analyze the impact on non-school tasks that students performed which can replace the time dedicated to studying and permanence in the school. We use the Aprender 2016 assessment database focusing on data of students from primary and high school. We use non-experimental data exploiting the question about if the student’s family is a beneficiary of the AUH. We perform a Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and estimate the average treatment effect on the treated of the program. The results show that the AUH had a positive impact on attendance augmenting the probability of not being absent from class fewer than eight and seventeen days in 1.3 p.p and 1 p.p., respectively. However, positive effects on educational performance and conducting of non-school tasks are not found. We also found heterogeneous effects, for male students the program increases the probability of missing fewer classes at all levels between 0.4 p.p. and 1.5 p.p. and students from rural areas and public schools have reassigned non-school tasks.

Cash transfers and political support: evidence from Ecuador

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-274
Author(s):  
Juan Ponce ◽  
Carolina Curvale
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vote Intention ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer Program ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper evaluates the argument that conditional cash transfer program recipients vote for the incumbent. We also test the hypothesis stating that ceasing to receive the benefit hinders support for the incumbent. Design/methodology/approach Using a regression discontinuity design, we assess the impact of the Bono de Desarrollo Humano cash transfer program on pro-incumbent voting of each of these four groups. Findings We did not find a significant impact of the transfer on pro-incumbent vote intention in any of the pairwise comparisons, which suggests that contextual factors determining retrospective voting may play an important role in shaping the relationship between pro-incumbent voting and social policy transfers. Originality/value Drawing on quasi-experimental evidence from Ecuador, where the eligibility criteria of the program changed exogenously, we evaluate the impacts of several treatments on pro-incumbent voting. We are able to identify four distinct groups: recipients under both eligibility criteria, nonrecipients under both criteria, new recipients and new nonrecipients.

The influence of Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program on child labor in Brazil

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Santana Moreira Pais ◽  
Felipe de Figueiredo Silva ◽  
Evandro Camargos Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The Brazilian Government created the Bolsa Familia program to combat poverty and the insertion of so many children into the labor market. This program is an income transfer program subject to certain conditions such as a minimum school attendance for children under 17 years of age. In 2006, almost half of the people with an income per capita of R$300.00 (US$139.53) per month declared that they received this benefit. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of Bolsa Familia on child labor in Brazil in 2006. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a propensity score matching model with data from the National Household Sample Survey PESQUISA NACIONAL POR AMOSTRA DE DOMICÍLIOS (PNAD), for 2006. Findings Results indicate that the program increased the number of hours of child labor in Brazil. However, this outcome might be explained by the fact that those families who received Bolsa Familia were also those with higher socioeconomic vulnerability. Thus, they need to guarantee their survival with the income generated via child labor. Social implications The Brazilian Government needs to invest not only in monetary transfer policies but also in the improvement of the job market to create opportunities for the social development of children. Originality/value The contribution of the paper is the investigation into the effect of the Bolsa Familia program on the average time allocated to child labor; the authors find that this time allocation could be reduced by requiring a compulsory school attendance.

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