ARTICLE: Impact evaluation and Political Economy : what does the "Conditional" in "Conditional cash transfers" accomplish?

Interesting article from Center for Global Development

Impact evaluation and Political Economy : what does the "Conditional" in "Conditional cash transfers" accomplish?

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January 12, 2012

By Lant Pritchett

Some economists, with their recent fad for “evaluation”, have managed to get themselves deeply confused about what the “conditional” in “conditional cash transfer” (CCT) is really about. They often interpret the “effectiveness” of CCTs relative to the action/behavior/outcome that was conditioned on—for example, the impact of schooling-conditioned transfers on enrollment rates.

But the key question is whether the value of the conditionality in CCT lies in the political symbolism provided by the condition that supports the transfer, or whether the condition has some additional benefits (or what mix of the two).

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