author: Debowicz, D., & Golan, J year: 2014 title: "The impact of Oportunidades on human capital and income distribution in Mexico: A top-down/bottom-up approach" publisher: Journal of Policy Modeling uri: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2013.10.014 discipline: economics country: Mexico period: 2008 maxlength: targeting: explicit group: poor data: national administrative survey Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares (ENIGH) 2008 design: quasi-experimental method: general equilibrium model, microeconometric simulation model; using Gini coefficient sample: 30000 unit: household representativeness: national causal: 1 # 0 correlation / 1 causal theory: human capital theory limitations: analytical household-level limitations; no indirect cost-effects able to be accounted for; static model observation: - intervention: cash transfer (conditional) institutional: 0 structural: 1 agency: 0 inequality: income; generational type: 0 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal indicator: 1 # 0 absolute / 1 relative measures: income findings: raises average income of poorest households by 23% channels: cash influx; positive wage effect benefitting those who keep their children at work; direct benefit for human capital increase (school attendance), indirect benefit for increased scarcity of unskilled labor direction: 1 significance: 2 notes: study attempts to explictly account for spillover effects annotation: | A study looking at the impact of the cash transfer programme Oportunidades in Mexico, conditioned on a household's children school attendance, on income inequality among others. It finds that a combination of effects raises the average income of the poorest households by 23 percent. The authors argue in the short run this benefits households through the direct cash influx itself, as well as generating a positive wage effect benefitting those who keep their children at work. Additionally, over the long-term for the children in the model there is a direct benefit for those whose human capital is increased due to the programme, but also an indirect benefit for those who did not increase their human capital, because of the increased scarcity of unskilled labor as a secondary effect. Due to the relatively low cost of the programme if correctly targeted, it seems to have a significantly positive effect on the Mexican economy and its income equality.