Evaluating the Impact of Brazil's Bolsa Família: Cash Transfer Programs in Comparative Perspective

TLDR

Bolsa Família’s design and implementation differ from a pure human‑capital‑based conditional cash transfer model. The study compares Bolsa Família’s impact to other Latin American conditional cash transfer programs. The authors review targeting performance and compare outcomes on inequality, poverty, consumption, education, health care, and labor participation across programs. Bolsa Família reduced inequality, extreme poverty, and improved education without harming labor participation, but health and nutrition gains were limited by supply‑side constraints.

Abstract

Abstract This note reviews the targeting performance of Bolsa Família and its impact on inequality, poverty, consumption, education, health care, and labor force participation. Bolsa Família has several design and implementation characteristics that distance it from a pure human-capital-based conditional cash transfer model. For that reason, we compare the impact of Bolsa Família to that of other conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America, such as in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile. We show that, as have other programs, Bolsa Família has helped reduce inequality and extreme poverty and has improved education outcomes, without having a negative impact on labor force participation. Where the program has failed to have its intended impact, in health and nutrition, supply-side constraints seem to be the principal problem.