The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of a conditional cash transfer program, Progresa, on school attendance in Mexican rural and urban areas. Within recent years, conditional cash transfer programs have become one of the most accepted remedies for poverty alleviation in many countries. Progresa was developed as an economic experi-ment, with randomized selection process, treatment groups and control croups. For this reason, the impact of Progresa is ideal for economic analysis. There are clear evidence of disparities between urban and rural school attendance rates in Mexico, hence the pro-gram’s effect on school attendance rates have been studied in the two regions. There are several reasons why one would expect different outcomes of the program on school at-tendance in rural and urban areas. Expected returns to education and the opportunity cost of investment in schooling in different regions are thought to affect the household’s optimization problem differently. The impact of Progresa on school attendance rates is estimated by a logit regression model analyzing household data within the household optimization framework. Mainly, Progresa has a positive impact on children’s school at-tendance. However, it may be concluded that Progresa has no significant effect for older children in rural areas. This result is assumed to be explained by the different conditions poor families face in different regions. If rural households’ optimization problem indeed looks different; this might suggest that the design of conditional cash transfer programs such as Progresa is crucially important depending on the region of implementation. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera det villkora välfärdsprogrammet Progresa och dess effekt på skolnärvaro i mexikanska rurala och urbana områden. Under senare år har villkora välfärdsprogram kommit att vara en av de mest accepterade formerna av bistånd för att minska fattigdom i de flesta länder. Progresa utvecklades utifrån ett ekonomiskt experiment, med en slumpmässig urvalsprocess samt en experiment- och kontrollgrupp. Med anledning av detta är Progresa ett utmärkt program att studera för ekonomisk analys. Skolnärvaron i mexikanska rurala och urbana områden varierar stort och av denna anledning har effekten av Progresa studerats i de båda regionerna. Det finns många anledningar till varför vi bör förvänta oss avvikande utfall. En förklaring kan vara att utbildningens förväntade avkastning och alternativkostnad påverkar hushållens optimeringsproblem olika. Effekten av Progresa på skolnärvaro är beräknad med en logit regressionsmodell där hushållsdata analyseras inom ramen för hushållets optimeringsproblem. Huvudsakligen har Progresa en positiv effekt på barns skolnärvaro. Dock, och vad som bör noteras, är det faktum att Progresa inte har en signifikant påverkan på äldre rurala barns skolnärvaro. Detta resultat antas förklaras av fattiga familjers olika förutsättningar i rurala och urbana områden. I det fall rurala familjers optimeringsproblem skiljer sig från urbana familjers optimeringsproblem, torde detta innebära att strukturen av ett villkorligt biståndsprogram, så som Progresa, är av största vikt och bör anpassas ändamålsenligt.

<p>The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of a conditional cash transfer program, Progresa, on school attendance in Mexican rural and urban areas. Within recent years, conditional cash transfer programs have become one of the most accepted remedies for poverty alleviation in many countries. Progresa was developed as an economic experi-ment, with randomized selection process, treatment groups and control croups. For this reason, the impact of Progresa is ideal for economic analysis. There are clear evidence of disparities between urban and rural school attendance rates in Mexico, hence the pro-gram’s effect on school attendance rates have been studied in the two regions. There are several reasons why one would expect different outcomes of the program on school at-tendance in rural and urban areas. Expected returns to education and the opportunity cost of investment in schooling in different regions are thought to affect the household’s optimization problem differently. The impact of Progresa on school attendance rates is estimated by a logit regression model analyzing household data within the household optimization framework. Mainly, Progresa has a positive impact on children’s school at-tendance. However, it may be concluded that Progresa has no significant effect for older children in rural areas. This result is assumed to be explained by the different conditions poor families face in different regions. If rural households’ optimization problem indeed looks different; this might suggest that the design of conditional cash transfer programs such as Progresa is crucially important depending on the region of implementation.</p> / <p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera det villkora välfärdsprogrammet Progresa och dess effekt på skolnärvaro i mexikanska rurala och urbana områden. Under senare år har villkora välfärdsprogram kommit att vara en av de mest accepterade formerna av bistånd för att minska fattigdom i de flesta länder. Progresa utvecklades utifrån ett ekonomiskt experiment, med en slumpmässig urvalsprocess samt en experiment- och kontrollgrupp. Med anledning av detta är Progresa ett utmärkt program att studera för ekonomisk analys. Skolnärvaron i mexikanska rurala och urbana områden varierar stort och av denna anledning har effekten av Progresa studerats i de båda regionerna. Det finns många anledningar till varför vi bör förvänta oss avvikande utfall. En förklaring kan vara att utbildningens förväntade avkastning och alternativkostnad påverkar hushållens optimeringsproblem olika. Effekten av Progresa på skolnärvaro är beräknad med en logit regressionsmodell där hushållsdata analyseras inom ramen för hushållets optimeringsproblem. Huvudsakligen har Progresa en positiv effekt på barns skolnärvaro. Dock, och vad som bör noteras, är det faktum att Progresa inte har en signifikant påverkan på äldre rurala barns skolnärvaro. Detta resultat antas förklaras av fattiga familjers olika förutsättningar i rurala och urbana områden. I det fall rurala familjers optimeringsproblem skiljer sig från urbana familjers optimeringsproblem, torde detta innebära att strukturen av ett villkorligt biståndsprogram, så som Progresa, är av största vikt och bör anpassas ändamålsenligt.</p>

Social protection has become an important tool in efforts to eradicate poverty in developing countries and also risen strongly on the global development agenda the last decade. This thesis will look at different approaches to social protection and their relation to the human right to social security with South Africa as a case study. In using different scholars in the field of social protection and social justice together with qualitative fieldwork, the thesis explores the importance of social protection and the politics underlying efforts to protect the right to social security of South Africans living in poverty. The thesis suggests that South Africa’s social protection system lies somewhere in between rights and relief and more universal systems comply better with a rights based approach to social protection. Although significant progress has been made to social protection in South Africa the last decade, more needs to be done for South Africa to reduce rampant inequalities and combat poverty in the future.

Submitted by Cristiane Shirayama (cristiane.shirayama@fgv.br) on 2011-08-20T18:45:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERT_ROGERIO BIANCHI SANTARROSA.pdf: 360667 bytes, checksum: 058eb45becdcdf8d90fb3a3a2991cabc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-08-22T12:14:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERT_ROGERIO BIANCHI SANTARROSA.pdf: 360667 bytes, checksum: 058eb45becdcdf8d90fb3a3a2991cabc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-08-22T12:26:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERT_ROGERIO BIANCHI SANTARROSA.pdf: 360667 bytes, checksum: 058eb45becdcdf8d90fb3a3a2991cabc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-22T12:39:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERT_ROGERIO BIANCHI SANTARROSA.pdf: 360667 bytes, checksum: 058eb45becdcdf8d90fb3a3a2991cabc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-17 / This paper attempts to estimate the impact of conditional cash transfer on students’ proficiency in Brazil. Conditional Cash Transfers literature has already showed significant evidence about the impact of those kind of social programs on school enrollment. However, we know very little about the impact of these policies on final capital human measures, such as proficiency. Furthermore, this paper relates to the literature about the impact of public policies on test scores. We find important relationships between program selection and basic characteristics of eligible group. Eligible group has generally less favorable social and economic features and lower test scores. We take advantage of a unique student’s panel to estimate causal effect. We explore fixed effect and difference-in-difference estimators and extension, such as triple difference and difference-in-difference combined with reweighting based on propensity score estimators. In general, results show that is no impact of those kind of programs on proficiency level in math and language. / Este artigo propõe estimar o impacto dos programas de transferência condicionada de renda sobre proficiência dos alunos no Brasil. A literatura de transferência condicionada de renda já mostrou bastantes evidências do impacto desse tipo de programa social sobre acesso e matrícula escolar. Porém, muito pouco se sabe sobre o efeito dessas políticas sobre medidas finais de capital humano como proficiência. Além disso, esse estudo também se insere na literatura de avaliação de impacto de políticas públicas sobre proficiência. Nós diagnosticamos em nosso trabalho importantes relações que envolvem a seleção desse tipo de programa e as características descritivas básicas e distintas do grupo de recipientes. Os recipientes do programa geralmente possuem características socioeconômicas menos favoráveis e notas de proficiência mais baixas, mesmo quando controlado por características socioeconômicas observáveis. Para estimar o efeito causal, fazemos uso de uma oportunidade única de construção de um painel de alunos. Exploramos modelos de estimadores de efeito fixo, diferença em diferença e extensões, como diferenças triplas e diferenças em diferenças combinada com reponderação baseada no propensity score. Os resultados, em geral, apontam que não há impacto desse tipo programa em notas de proficiência de matemática e português.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo explorar as conexões do Programa Bolsa Família com a questão educacional, analisando em que medida o programa reduz as múltiplas dimensões da desigualdade educacional enfrentada por seus beneficiários. Partindo-se da ideia que o direito à educação pressupõe a garantia de algo comum, e portanto igual para todos, adotou-se a concepção de desigualdade educacional de Marcel Crahay (2000), que define três dimensões necessárias de igualdade educacional: acesso, tratamento e conhecimento. Realizou-se uma discussão teórica sobre o papel da educação dentro do desenho do Bolsa Família, que busca por meio do acesso aos serviços educacionais cortar o ciclo intergeracional de pobreza em que estão inseridos seus beneficiários. Depois, foi diagnosticada a situação enfrentada pelos beneficiários em cada dimensão da desigualdade educacional. Esse diagnóstico foi realizado a partir de bases de dados do Sistema Presença, Censo Escolar, Ideb, Pnad e outros indicadores educacionais disponibilizados pelo Inep. Por fim, analisou-se como o programa busca e tem efeitos na redução das múltiplas dimensões da desigualdade educacional. Este último passo foi realizado a partir de uma revisão de literatura das produções acadêmicas da área e de um estudo de caso na rede municipal de Osasco. Conclui-se que os principais efeitos do Bolsa Família são sobre a dimensão do acesso, ainda que ele tenha efeitos potenciais e incipientes sobre a dimensão do tratamento e do aprendizado, principalmente via integração setorial. / This dissertation\'s main goal was to explore the ties between Bolsa Familia social program and the educational issue, analizing to what extent the program reduces the multiple aspects of educational inequality the beneficiaries are subject to. It was adopted Marcel Crahay\'s educational inequality concept that defines three necessary dimensions to reach educational equality: access, treatment and knowledge. I have made a theoretical discussion of the role education plays in the Bolsa Familia design, which aims to interrupt the beneficiarie\'s intergenerational poverty cycle by broadening the access to educational services. After that, I unraveled the situation faced by the beneficiaries in each dimension of educational inequality. This diagnosis was made using the Sistema Presença, Censo Escolar, Ideb and Pnad databases, along with other educational indicators made public by Inep. At last, I analyzed the program\'s efforts and results in reducing educational inequalities, in its multiple aspects. That last part was made by reviewing the specific academic literature and with a case study in the municipality of Osasco. The conclusion is that the main effects of the Bolsa Familia program are related to the access dimension, although it has potential and incipient effects on the treatment and knowledge dimensions, specially when it comes to sectorial integration.

Transferências Condicionadas de Renda (TCR), como o Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) no Brasil, são cada vez mais adotadas no mundo para romper com o ciclo de transmissão da pobreza, por meio de transferências monetárias a famílias pobres, condicionadas a investimentos em capital humano. Como cerca de 76% da população pobre do mundo vive em áreas rurais, e a incidência de pobreza é maior em localidades remotas florestadas, os TCR são frequentemente implementados junto a populações semiautárquicas de países em desenvolvimento. Assim, essas transferências têm aumentado a disponibilidade de recursos monetários junto a essas populações, como certos povos indígenas. Nesses contextos, evidências prévias mostram que a monetarização das economias locais pode ter efeitos positivos, negativos ou nulos na dedicação de tempo às atividades de subsistência e no consumo de recursos naturais. Porém, existem duas lacunas nesse conhecimento. Primeiro, estudos prévios avaliaram os efeitos conjuntos de diversas fontes de renda, muito embora estas variem nos investimentos de tempo necessários, de nulos (e.g., TCR e aposentadorias) a altos (e.g., salários e comércio de artesanato). Segundo, a maior parte da literatura assume, ainda que implicitamente, que as decisões na base das escolhas humanas são racionais e motivadas, sobretudo, por maximizar a renda ou, eventualmente, minimizar os riscos. Porém, evidências empíricas e avanços teóricos indicam que as decisões nem sempre são racionais, tanto por limitações cognitivas que levam a outros processos decisórios (e.g., heurísticas), como porque são motivadas por outros fatores (e.g., prazer, emoção, normas sociais). Portanto, esta dissertação teve por objetivo investigar se o aumento da renda monetária de transferências do PBF estava associado a diferenças no investimento de tempo em atividades de subsistência (agricultura, caça, pesca e coleta) e no consumo de produtos derivados ou não dessas atividades pelo povo indígena Kisêdjê da Amazônia brasileira. Além disso, investigou se o hedonismo e a contabilidade mental seriam motivadores dessas decisões. Três hipóteses foram testadas. Primeira, diferentes fontes de renda monetária devem produzir efeitos diversos sobre o tempo dedicado pelos Kisêdjê a atividades de subsistência. Segunda, os efeitos do PBF devem variar de acordo com o quanto as pessoas apreciam cada atividade de subsistência, i.e., o hedonismo é importante para prever investimentos de tempo nessas atividades. Terceira, os Kisêdjê realizam contabilidade mental, i.e., separam o dinheiro em diferentes contas mentais e, portanto, fontes alternativas de renda monetária devem produzir padrões de consumo distintos e fontes de renda de baixo esforço, como o PBF, devem privilegiar o consumo de alimentos ou de bens supérfluos. Para tal, o estudo adotou um delineamento observacional em painel, compreendendo todos (242) os indivíduos adultos (>=16 anos) de 2 comunidades. Os dados foram coletados em dois períodos em 2016 e 2017, por meio de survey por entrevistas estruturadas e experimento em contabilidade mental, e observação direta de alocação de tempo (random-interval instantaneous sampling), sendo analisados por técnicas de estatística descritiva e modelos mistos de regressão. Os resultados mostraram, primeiro, que as transferências do PBF não tiveram efeitos no tempo dedicado às atividades de subsistência, embora outras rendas monetárias (e.g., trabalho regular, aposentadoria) tenham ora aumentado, ora reduzido a probabilidade de investimento de tempo. Segundo, o hedonismo foi mais importante que as fontes de renda monetária para explicar o esforço alocado na atividade de caça para os homens. Por fim, não foram observadas evidências de contabilidade mental, ou seja: (i) o padrão de consumo não diferiu segundo a fonte de renda, mas somente entre homens e mulheres; (ii) com fontes de renda de baixo (e.g. PBF) ou alto esforço, os Kisêdjê estiveram menos propensos a consumir bens supérfluos. Os resultados parecem sugerir que os efeitos do PBF nas atividades de subsistência e no consumo dos Kisêdjê são baixos, muito embora a cobertura ampla tenha dificultado a avaliação. Quanto aos motivadores, os resultados apontam para a importância de investigar outros determinantes além da renda. / Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), such as the Bolsa Família Program (BFP) in Brazil, have increasingly been adopted worldwide to break the cycle of poverty transmission, by transferring cash to poor families, conditional on investments in human capital. As about 76% of the worlds poor live in rural areas, and poverty incidence is higher in remote forested localities, CCTs are frequently implemented in semi-autarkic communities of developing countries. Thus, these transfers have increased the availability of cash income resources to semi-autarkic populations, such as certain indigenous peoples. In this context, prior evidence shows the monetization of local economies has been associated with positive, negative, or null effects on the time allocated to subsistence activities and consumption of natural resources. However, there are two knowledge gaps. First, previous studies evaluated the combined effects of several income sources, although these sources vary on the necessary time investments, from null (e.g., CCTs) to high (e.g., wages and handicrafts trade). Second, most previous studies assume, although implicitly, that decisions which base peoples choices are rational and motivated, above all, on income maximization or, occasionally, risk minimization. However, empirical evidence and theoretical advances indicate that decisions are often not always, either because of cognitive limitations that lead to other decision-making processes (e.g., heuristics), or because they are motivated by other factors (e.g., pleasure, emotion, social norms). Therefore, this dissertation aimed to investigate whether increased levels of cash income from the BFP transfers were associated with differences in time investments in subsistence activities (agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering) and in the consumption of Kisêdjê indigenous people from the Brazilian Amazon. Additionally, we investigated if hedonism and mental accounting were the motivators behind these decisions. Three hypotheses were tested. First, alternative income sources should produce different effects on the time allocated by the Kisêdjê to subsistence activities. Second, the effects of BFP should vary, depending on how much people appreciated each subsistence activity, i.e. hedonism is important to predict time investments. Third, Kisêdjê do mental accounting and, therefore, different cash income sources should distinct consumption patterns and low-effort activities such as BFP should increase the likelihood of consuming superfluous food or goods. To do that, we adopted an observational panel design, including all (242) adult individuals (>= 16 years) in 2 communities. Data were gathered in two periods in 2016 and 2017, through a survey based on face-to-face interviews and experiment in mental accounting, direct observations of time allocation by random-interval instantaneous sampling, and were analysed by descriptive statistical techniques and mixed-effects regressions. The results indicated that, first, BFP cash transfers had no effect on the time spent on subsistence activities, although other income sources (e.g., wages, pensions) in certain cases increased, while in others decreased the likelihood of time investments. Second, hedonism was important than cash income sources in explaining the effort allocated to hunting for men. Finally, we did not observe evidences of mental accounting, i.e.: (i) consumption patterns did not differ across income sources, but only between men and women; (ii) with low-effort (e.g., BFP) or high-effort income sources, the Kisêdjê were less likely to consume superfluous goods. Our results suggest that the effects of BFP transfers on subsistence activities and consumption are low, although the high rate of coverage has impaired our analyses. As regards motivations, the results point to the importance of investigating determinants other than income.

Cette thèse porte sur les effets de transferts monétaires sur l’emploi dans le marché du travail sud-africain, un marché fortement segmenté entre secteur formel et informel. Le premier et principal chapitre montre qu’un programme de transferts monétaires inconditionnels destinés aux mères a eu des effets positifs durables sur la qualité de leurs emplois. Sur le long terme, les mères bénéficiaires du transfert sont plus susceptibles d’être employées dans le secteur formel. C’est la conséquence de changements dans la façon dont les mères traitées cherchent un emploi. En leur donnant la possibilité de rester au chômage pendant plus longtemps, le programme de transferts inconditionnels leur permet de viser des emplois de meilleure qualité. Le deuxième chapitre étudie les effets sur l’emploi d’une réforme du système public de retraites en Afrique du Sud, qui est non-contributif et soumis à conditions de ressources. Cette réforme a abaissé l’âge de la retraite de 65 à 60 ans pour les hommes. Elle a entraîné une forte diminution du taux d’activité des travailleurs informels, qui cessent de travailler lorsqu’ils atteignent 60 ans et deviennent éligibles à la pension de retraite non-contributive. Au contraire, les travailleurs du secteur formel ne quittent pas leur emploi et ne se tournent pas vers le secteur informel pour avoir droit à la pension de retraite. Enfin, cette thèse aborde la question du faible nombre de travailleurs indépendants en Afrique du Sud. Le dernier chapitre montre que les Sud-Africains ne travaillent pas plus à leur compte en réponse à des transferts monétaires. Cela indique que les contraintes de liquidité ne sont pas la principale raison du manque de travailleurs indépendants en Afrique du Sud. Cette faible présence de travailleurs indépendants a probablement des racines historiques liées à l’apartheid. Ce troisième chapitre examine les implications potentielles de cette explication, ainsi que les pistes de recherches futures possibles pour une compréhension plus fine de ce phénomène. / This dissertation studies the employment effects of cash transfers in a segmented labor market. The first and main chapter shows that an unconditional cash transfer program targeted at mothers has lasting positive impacts on job quality. Five years after having received the cash transfer, treated mothers are more likely to be employed in the formal sector. This appears to be the result of changes in the way recipients search for a job, as treated mothers are unemployed for longer and target better jobs. The second chapter shows the employment effects of a reform in the means-tested, non-contributory pension system of South Africa, which lowered the age of retirement from 65 to 60 for men. The reform caused a large extensive-margin response, as informal workers stop working when they become eligible to the pension. Instead, formal workers do not quit their jobs nor switch to the informal sector to become eligible to the pension. Lastly, this dissertation discusses the lack of self-employment in South Africa. Building on the results of the first two chapters, the last chapter shows that South Africans do not increase entry to self-employment as a result of cash transfers. This indicates that liquidity constraints are not the main reason for the lack of self-employment in South Africa, which is likely to have historical roots stemming from Apartheid. The chapter discusses evidence and potential policy implications of this explanation, alongside possible avenues for future research on this phenomenon.

This dissertation is the first ever written Institutional Ethnography (IE) of the Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social, or "AUH" [Universal Child Allowance], Argentina's CCT (conditional cash transfer) program. CCTs are one of international development's favourite and fastest-growing anti-poverty initiatives. Through the AUH, the State transfers cash to the poor attaching certain conditions that refer to the health and education of their children. Most CCT programs target women, and the AUH is no exception, as the overwhelming majority of legal recipients of the AUH are poor mothers. CCTs have been praised for contributing to human capital accumulation and empowering women. Using IE, a feminist socio-legal methodology drawn from Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith,† I conducted research with a total of fifty-eight informants: thirty-nine AUH recipient women - through in-depth semi-structured individual interviews, focus group discussions, and narrative photovoice - and nineteen professionals working at diverse corners of the AUH institution. I use the findings to answer two main questions: (1) What are AUH recipients' experiences with and attitudes toward the program? and (2) How do both State and non-State legal regimes work to influence the lives of the most vulnerable women in Argentina? In other words, how does the AUH play within a system of rules - formal and informal - that have traditionally exerted control over poor women? Following IE and Social Reproduction Feminism (SRF), I found that while the AUH program indicates women's decision-making roles within their families and communities, this policy initiative serves to entrench rather than rectify inequalities. The problematic that I have found through this study is administrative and obstetric violence against AUH recipient women. Discussion about the administrative and obstetric violence that AUH recipient women suffer while doing AUH work has remained at the margins of legal and social policy debates, generally underdeveloped in policy and scholarship conversations about the realities of Argentina's most vulnerable people. Recipient women depicted diverse acts of violence they suffered while doing AUH work: they were mistreated, dismissed, neglected, humiliated, and discriminated against by State agents; recipient women were treated as ignorant or infantilized; recipient women had their stipend partially stolen by bureaucrats; had to wait countless hours in unsafe conditions; were not heard by health actors when expressing concerns about their health; had no opportunity to give prior informed consent; and they faced barriers to accessing health services and contraception. I have found a disjuncture between women's lived experiences and the broader ruling relations that organize "AUH work." The findings show a disconnection between women's experiences of violence, bureaucratic actors' experiences and knowledge of the AUH, and a misalignment between bureaucrats' knowledge and the black-letter law. These disjunctures enable and facilitate violence against recipient women through fragmentation, invisibilization, rationalization, minimization, standardization, and objectification of women's experiences. In sum, the AUH facilitates violence against women and systematically obscures that violence. Following a legal pluralist approach, I show the complex role of the law: at times, it problematically excludes recipient women's actual experiences from the AUH legal framework; at others, it fails to protect recipient women against violence. I identify the formal legal regimes interacting and immersed in the AUH institution: human rights and constitutional law, administrative law, and the violence against women (VAW) legal framework. Despite an outstanding formal repertoire of rights, there is a gap between the formal laws and their effective translation into women's lives. The law is fragmented, complex, and sometimes contradictory. It cannot be limited to State-enacted formal laws; informal laws substantially impact people's lives, such as the rule to avoid retaliation from State actors by avoiding complaining. I argue that IE and legal pluralism can provide a more nuanced understanding of the law's complex institutional hierarchy and of the myriad ways by which recipient women's voices continue to be ignored and discredited within the law in the hope that the law can better respond (or at least stops interfering) with their needs. Ultimately, nothing less than the transformation of the socioeconomic order will achieve gender equality. Rather than "empowerment," we should strive toward emancipation, abolishing the structural colonial, patriarchal, and capitalist foundations of exploitation and oppression instead of integrating women into existing institutions and "empowering" them with shallow cash transfers.

In this thesis, I examine whether unconditional cash transfers to poor femaleheaded households have an effect on children’s educational attainment. Using a historical Swedish child allowance policy that targeted unconditional cash transfers to widow mothers with an income below a poverty threshold, I lay out a credible identification strategy, to test the hypothesis with a regression kink design. The results, although statistically underpowered and thus to be taken with a pinch of salt, point towards that cash transfers at the extensive margin increased the probability of continuing school another year to eighth grade. While this tendency can not alone be interpreted causally, the method developed can be extended in future work. With the collection and matching of two uniquely rich micro datasets tracking individuals over their life trajectory, combined with this natural experiment setting, my study contributes to building the path to understanding the link between cash transfers and human capital development in childhood. Ultimately, it could add to the policy guidance literature.

This thesis explores the role of Development policy as an alternative to the traditional public security focused strategies for tackling organised crime violence in Latin America and the Caribbean. To do so, it builds bridges between the academic literature of criminology and development. It examines the public experiences of insecurity in Mexico and the social impacts of a development initiative, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme in two municipalities in Mexico. The thesis poses questions about the impacts of Development initiatives upon organised crime violence from the perspectives of those living within areas affected by violence. The CCT programmes seek to address poverty in the short and long-term and research has begun to explore the potential of these programmes to diminish violence and crime, almost exclusively from a quantitative research approach, whereas this study adopts a qualitative design. This research is based on data gathered through interviews, observations, and focus groups to examine the perspectives and experiences of current and former CCT recipients, CCT administrators, public security officials, members of the public, NGO leads, and ex-gang affiliated individuals. This micro-level qualitative methodology adopted in this research contrasts the almost exclusively macro-level, econometric evaluations which have dominated CCT and organised crime research. The findings demonstrated that respondents perceived CCTs as significant in reducing the propensity of young men participating in organised crime violence in their localities. The perspectives of participants in this study provided enough evidence to overturn a common narrative of ‘prevention doesn’t work’ and suggest that in each of the areas targeted by the study there is potential for a reduction of organised crime rooted in development initiatives according to respondents.