de Janvry, AlainSadoulet, Elisabeth2014-01-022014-01-022006-02-01World Bank Economic Reviewdoi:10.1093/wber/lhj002https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16466Conditional cash transfer programs are now used extensively to encourage poor parents to increase investments in their children's human capital. These programs can be large and expensive, motivating a quest for greater efficiency through increased impact of the programs' imposed conditions on human capital formation. This requires designing the programs' targeting and calibration rules specifically to achieve this result. Using data from the Progresa randomized experiment in Mexico, this article shows that large efficiency gains can be achieved by taking into account how much the probability of a child's enrollment is affected by a conditional transfer. Rules for targeting and calibration can be made easy to implement by selecting indicators that are simple, observable, and verifiable and that cannot be manipulated by beneficiaries. The Mexico case shows that these efficiency gains can be achieved without increasing inequality among poor households.en-USCC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGOACCOUNTADULTSAGRICULTURAL WORKERSBIRTH ORDERBUDGET FOR EDUCATIONCASH TRANSFER PROGRAMSCASH TRANSFERSCHILD HEALTHCHILD LABORDISTRIBUTION OF CHILDRENEDUCATION BUDGETENROLLMENTENROLLMENT RATEENROLLMENT RATESFAMILY MEMBERSFOOD CONSUMPTIONFOOD POLICYFOOD-FOR-EDUCATIONGENDER DIFFERENCESGIRLSHIGHER GRADESHIGHER INEQUALITYHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN CAPITAL FORMATIONHUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENTILLITERACYILLITERATE PARENTSINCOMEINEQUALITYLITERACYLITERATE PARENTSNUTRITIONNUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTSPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONPOORPOOR CHILDRENPOOR COUNTRIESPOOR FAMILIESPOOR HOUSEHOLDSPOOR PARENTSPOOR RURAL CHILDRENPOVERTY REDUCTIONPRIMARY SCHOOLPRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDRENPRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTSPROGRAM DESIGNSRE-ENTRYRETURN TO EDUCATIONRURALRURAL AREASRURAL CHILDRENRURAL COMMUNITIESRURAL SCHOOLSSCHOOL ATTENDANCESCHOOL ENROLLMENTSCHOOL PARTICIPATIONSCHOOL SYSTEMSCHOOL YEARSCHOOL YEARSSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSSECONDARY EDUCATIONSECONDARY SCHOOLSOCIAL ASSISTANCESOCIAL DEVELOPMENTSOCIAL SERVICESTARGETED TRANSFERSTARGETINGTRANSFER AMOUNTSJournalWorld Bank10.1596/16466