Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Centers & Programs
    • Centers
      • Center for Energy Studies
      • Center for Health and Biosciences
      • Center for the Middle East
      • Center for Public Finance
      • Center for the U.S. and Mexico
      • McNair Center
      Center for Energy Studies
      Providing new insights on the role of economics, policy and regulation in the performance and evolution of energy markets.
      More Details
      The globe at night, lights in populated areas illuminated
      Center for Health and Biosciences
      Advancing data-based policies that promote health and well-being in the U.S. and around the world.
      More Details
      Female healthcare worker lifts finger to press digital buttons featuring topical iconography
      Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East
      Developing pragmatic policy approaches to the region’s enduring political, economic and societal concerns.
      More Details
      Topographic map of Middle East
      Center for Public Finance
      Delivering research and analysis on the effects of major U.S. fiscal policies.
      More Details
      Stack of coins with mathematical figure overlays
      Center for the U.S. and Mexico
      Strengthening the binational relationship by addressing major concerns on both sides of the border.
      More Details
      Textured flags of America and Mexico
      McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
      Providing actionable policy analysis and recommendations that aim to expand the economy through private enterprise.
      More Details
      Professionals gather around a large table with laptops, printed documents and coffee cups for a business meeting
    • Programs
      • China Studies
      • Drug Policy
      • International Economics
      • Presidential Elections
      • Religion & Public Policy
      • Science & Technology Policy
      • Space Policy
      China Studies
      Analyzing the influence of the transnational circulation of people, technologies, commodities and ideas in China.
      Read More
      Person walks alongside large banner with Chinese characters
      Drug Policy
      Pursuing research and open debate to develop pragmatic drug policies based on common sense and driven by human rights interests.
      Read More
      Marijuana
      International Economics
      Studying timely issues in global economic policy as well as developmental policy in foreign countries.
      Read More
      International paper currencies stacked together, showing range of colors and styles
      Presidential Elections
      Offering nonpartisan analysis of elections to better understand the changing dynamics of presidential campaigns.
      Read More
      An assortment of campaign buttons from a variety of US elections and political pursuits are displayed in a collage
      Religion and Public Policy
      Exploring how religion and cultural factors interact with public policy issues.
      Read More
      A worn path stretches between rows of olive trees
      Science and Technology Policy
      Addressing a broad range of policy issues that affect scientists and their research.
      Read More
      A scientist picks up test tubes from a rack.
      Space Policy
      Focusing on U.S. space policy and the future of space travel.
      Read More
      The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth at sunrise
  • Events
    Child at border plays in the dirt with superhero toy
    Center for the U.S. and Mexico
    Thu, Feb. 23, 2023 | 5 pm - 7:30 pm
    Immigration Reform and the Impact on Children: A Town Hall Discussion See Details
    The front of Baker Hall, from across the plaza, with fountain on the left
    Center for Energy Studies | Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East
    Thu, Mar. 02, 2023 | 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
    How Kuwait and Other Gulf Oil Giants Are Navigating the Energy Transition See Details
    Tile mosaic over an entrance to Baker Hall that reads "A Bridge Between the World of Ideas and the World of Action"
    Center for the U.S. and Mexico | Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East
    Wed, Mar. 15, 2023 | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
    Charting Paths Forward on Immigration Reform See Details
  • Experts
    • Biomedical Research
    • Child Health
    • China
    • Conflict Resolution in the Middle East
    • Domestic Health Policy
    • Drug Policy
    • Energy
    • Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
    • Global Health
    • Health and Biosciences
    • Human Rights and Refugees
    • International Economics
    • Islam and Politics
    • Latin American Energy
    • Middle East
    • Political Economy of the Arab Gulf
    • Presidential Elections
    • Public Finance
    • Religion and Public Policy
    • Science and Technology
    • Space Policy
    • Texas Politics
    • U.S. and Iran
    • U.S. and Mexico
    • See All Experts
    • Experts in the News
  • Support
    • Join the Baker Roundtable
      Join the Baker Roundtable
      Learn more about the Baker Institute’s membership forum, which supports the mission of the institute and offers members exclusive access to experts and events.
      Read More
      RT
    • Major Gifts
      Major Gifts
      Major gifts provide the funds necessary for the Baker Institute to explore new areas of study and research, and expand current programs.
      Read More
      Wallace S. Wilson meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
    • Endowments
      Endowments
      Endowment gifts provide the Baker Institute with permanent resources that support research programs, fellows and scholars.
      Read More
      Pictured from left are William Martin, Katharine Neill Harris, Ambassador Edward Djerejian, Alfred C. Glassell, III, and Pam Lindberg
    • Planned Giving
      Planned Giving

      Plan a gift that will ensure lasting, meaningful support for policy programs important to you.

       

      Read More
      meeting
    • Corporate Support
      Corporate Support
      Corporations can become involved with the institute in a number of ways and see the benefit from the research conducted by our fellows and scholars.
      Read More
      Wide shot of the Doré Commons during a Shell Distinguished Lecture Series event featuring Wim Thomas
  • About
    • People
      People
      Learn more about the Baker Institute's leadership and get contact information for the administrative staff.
      Read More
      Secretary James A. Baker, III, stands with a portion of the Berlin Wall, outside of Baker Hall
    • Student Opportunities
      Student Opportunities
      Through the internships on campus and beyond, Rice students can explore careers in public policy, or simply become better informed about important issues of the day.
      Read More
      Amb. Edward P. Djerejian speaks with students outside Baker Hall
    • Annual Report
    • Blog
    • Contact
      Contact Us
      Complete a form for event, media or other inquiries, and get directions and parking information for the Baker Institute.
      Read More
      The front of Baker Hall, from across the plaza, with fountain in foreground
  • Contact
  • Research
    • Economics & Finance
      Economics & Finance
      Read More
    • Energy
      Latest Energy Research
      Summary on Latest Energy Research
      Read More
    • Foreign Policy
      Foreign Policy
      Read More
    • Domestic Policy
      Domestic Policy
      Read More
    • Health & Science
      Health & Science
      Read More
    • All Publications
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Economics & Finance
  • Energy
  • Foreign Policy
  • Domestic Policy
  • Health & Science
  • All Publications
Center for the U.S. and Mexico | Policy Brief

Conditional vs. Unconditional Antipoverty Programs in Mexico

January 27, 2020 | Gregory S. Schober

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Gregory S. Schober
Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at El Paso

Share this Publication

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Linkedin
  • Download PDF
  • Print This Publication
  • Cite This Publication

    Schober, Gregory S. 2020. Conditional vs. Unconditional Antipoverty Programs in Mexico. Policy brief no. 01.27.20. Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Houston, Texas.

    Copy Citation

Tags

Mexico cash transferscurrencyMexico poverty

Introduction

In the last 20 years, cash transfer programs have emerged as a leading antipoverty policy tool in the Global South.1 The transfers consist of direct money payments to poor families. Antipoverty programs are classified as targeted, or means-tested, because families must fall below a certain poverty threshold to be eligible for the program.

A key policy debate surrounding such programs is whether targeted cash transfer programs should include conditionalities—conditions that beneficiary families must meet to continue receiving the desired transfers.2 Many cash transfer programs implemented in Latin America in the last two decades have incorporated such conditions. Such is the case with Mexico as well. Since the late 1990s, Mexico was in fact lauded as a social policy pioneer and global leader in designing and implementing a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program on a national scale. The Mexican CCT program was initially named Progresa, but eventually changed its name to Oportunidades and finally it became Prospera. Whenever possible, an adult female was required to be the head program participant in each beneficiary family, and this person ultimately was responsible for fulfilling the program conditions. The exact conditionalities in the Mexican CCT program changed over time, but generally included the human capital investments of attending school, having periodic health checkups, and attending nutrition workshops. Many countries, in and beyond Latin America, followed Mexico’s lead and adopted a similar CCT program, including both the use of cash transfers and the use of conditionalities.3

Many studies have analyzed the effects of Mexican CCTs in recent decades, focusing primarily on the consequences of program participation for poverty, health, and education. Most of these studies uncovered that CCTs have positive effects on basic service utilization and/or human development.4

Recent Policy Change in Mexico

Under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), the Mexican government has transformed its CCT program by eliminating almost all conditionalities. The remaining programs, such as the Becas Benito Juárez (Benito Juárez Scholarships), provide public education scholarships for secondary students. But the programs no longer are means-tested; and families do not need to demonstrate that they are poor in order to be eligible for education scholarships. Also, although continued school enrollment still is a requirement for receiving the government transfer, strict school attendance requirements and other conditionalities along the same lines have been eliminated. The stated reasons for this major antipoverty policy shift were to reduce corruption among program officials remove unnecessary burdens for adult female beneficiaries, and prevent the abuse of vulnerable families.5

Because policy changes to Mexico’s antipoverty programs are relatively recent and the remaining Becas Benito Juárez program is still in its infancy, the consequences of the policy changes are not yet known. It may be the case that the policy changes have the intended consequences of increasing human development and reducing corruption and abuse of poor families—something not yet clearly defined by the López Obrador administration. A key determinant of these consequences will be how the program is implemented over time. Despite this uncertainty regarding the future, the fact remains that nearly all conditionalities have been removed from Mexico’s antipoverty program after over 20 years in existence. Future studies must focus on the return on investment, if the most important change has been the removal of conditions.

New Research on CCT Conditionalities in Mexico

In an article published by the author of this brief in the Latin American Research Review,6 the effects of Mexico’s CCTs prior to the removal of the conditionalities component are examined. Using original survey data from Mexico, the author conducted a comparative policy analysis to assess the effects of specific CCT program components on political and civic participation—two desirable positive effects of these programs. The study finds that conditionalities boost participation in multiple political and civic activities, including contacting public officials, community activism, and civil society engagement. Moreover, the pathway from CCT conditionalities to increased political and civic participation involves the development of civic skills. In the study, it is shown that adult beneficiaries exercise and develop more civic skills while they are working to fulfill the required conditions. The improved civic skills reduce the costs of political and civic participation among program beneficiaries and boost their involvement in multiple modes of political and civic activity.7 In the end, this is considered a positive effect as recipients learn political skills and engage the political system, something which makes them more effective citizens.

The results of the aforementioned study strongly suggest that CCTs, and specifically the conditionalities component, have important consequences for democratic citizenship among poor adult beneficiaries. Although impoverished adults in Mexico may have limited opportunities to develop civic skills through formal education or employment, conditionalities create regular opportunities for poor adults to attend and participate in meetings, set up appointments, write letters, and ask for clarification or assistance. They may also organize better to defend their interests vis-à-vis government action on their benefits. Thus, based on the estimated results, conditionalities boost civic skills by nearly 30% for the average respondent. As for political and civic participation, conditionalities increase contacting public officials by 26%, community activism by 28%, and civil society engagement by 21%.8 Taken together, CCT conditionalities prepare poor adults for democratic engagement and spur them to become more involved in a wide range of democratic political and civic activities. CCT conditionalities thus create better democrats.

The author’s recent study focuses on analyzing conditionality effects for adult CCT beneficiaries, so the conclusions are unable to estimate the corresponding effects on youth CCT beneficiaries. But it is likely that Mexican CCTs have impacts on the democratic citizenship of youth beneficiaries as well, and it may even be the case that the effects on children are larger. After all, some children have spent nearly all their lives as beneficiaries of CCT programs, and they have witnessed increased democratic participation by adults in their household. The modeling of democratic engagement in the home, along with the potential passing down of democratic values, may spur increased democratic participation among youth CCT beneficiaries as they enter adulthood.

An important inference of the study and its conclusions, therefore, is that by eliminating conditionalities on cash transfer programs, the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration may be depressing the political and civic skills of program recipients. Such outcome is hardly desirable, if the goal of a democracy is to increase citizen participation in political and civic activities and create greater awareness of the relationship between government and voters.

Policy Recommendations

Based on the results of the author’s study, three main policy recommendations can be advanced. First, the Mexican government should revise its antipoverty programs to create more opportunities for poor individuals to exercise and develop civic skills—and that may mean returning the conditionalities to the reception of the benefits. While it is unclear if recent antipoverty policy changes will contribute to increased human development among poor families, the evidence is more straightforward regarding the consequences of conditionality removal for civic skill development. The overhaul of the CCT program has created a large void for civic skill opportunities among the poor in Mexico. If the Mexican government wants to continue developing skilled and active democrats among the poor, then it needs to create opportunities for the regular exercise of civic skills. If conditionalities are not desirable as a matter of policy preference, perhaps a substitute can be implemented—one proven to have a positive effect on political and civic skills.

Second, because the dismantling of the CCT program in Mexico creates a unique opportunity to study the effects of policy change and conditionalities, the Mexican government should hire an independent research group to collect extensive subnational- and individual-level data on poverty, health, education, and democratic citizenship. If more data is collected and made publicly available, then researchers will have more leverage to estimate the corresponding effects. The time to begin this investment in data collection is now. As more time passes, the challenges to estimate the causal effects of policy change grow. If this is done soon, estimating the effects of conditions on cash transfer programs can be studied and the question of the utility of conditionalities can be resolved more effectively.

Third, as policymakers and international funders decide whether to use conditional versus unconditional cash transfers throughout the world, they must consider the potential consequences for democratic citizenship—as should Mexico in future programs. Clearly, the effects of antipoverty policies on poverty, education, and health need to be considered in the cost-benefit analysis. But the democratic engagement consequences also must be a part of the overall equation for selecting antipoverty policies. After all, skilled and active democrats provide crucial information for the improvement of government services and ultimately create more favorable conditions for long-term poverty alleviation.

Endnotes

1. This policy brief is based on Gregory S. Schober, “Conditional Cash Transfers, Resources, and Political Participation in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 54, no. 3 (2019): 591–607, http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.143.

2. See Cesar Zucco, Juan Pablo Luna, and O. Gokce Baykal, “Do Conditionalities Increase Support for Government Transfers?” Journal of Development Studies, February 18, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1577388.

3. Ariel Fiszbein and Norbert Schady, Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2009), https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7352-1.

4. Ibid.

5. Stephen Kidd, “The demise of Mexico’s Prospera programme; a tragedy foretold,” Development Pathways Blog, June 2, 2019, https://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/blog/the-demise-of-mexicos-prospera-programme-a-tragedy-foretold/; and Benjamin Russell, “What AMLO’s Anti-Poverty Overhaul Says About His Government,” Americas Quarterly, February 26, 2019, https://www. americasquarterly.org/content/what-amlos-anti-poverty-overhaul-says-about-his-government.

6. Schober, “Conditional Cash Transfers,” 2019.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

 

 

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

© 2020 Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy
https://doi.org/10.25613/0yvb-8406
  • Print This Publication
  • Share
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Email
    • Linkedin

Related Research

Mexico Flag
Center for the U.S. and Mexico | Report

Mexico Country Outlook 2023

Read More
Rio Grande
Center for the U.S. and Mexico | Report

Treaty and Non-Treaty Mechanisms for Resolving the Rio Grande River Water Debt Dilemma

Read More
Hand types on laptop keyboard, with icons and symbols extruded from the screen; future tech, AI concept
Center for the U.S. and Mexico | Journal

A Social Network Analysis of Mexico’s Dark Network Alliance Structure

Read More
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Donate Now
  • Media Inquiries
  • Membership
  • About the Institute
  • Rice.edu
Contact Us

6100 Main Street
Baker Hall MS-40, Suite 120
Houston, TX 77005

Email: bipp@rice.edu
Phone: 713-348-4683
Fax: 713-348-5993

Baker Institute Newsletter

The email newsletter of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy provides a snapshot of institute news, research and upcoming events.

Sign Up

  • © Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy
  • Web Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy