Bourguignon, FrancoisFerreira, Francisco H.G.Leite, Phillippe G.2014-02-262014-02-262003-05World Bank Economic Reviewhttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/17179A growing number of developing economies are providing cash transfers to poor people that require certain behaviors on their part, such as attending school or regularly visiting health care facilities. A simple ex ante methodology is proposed for evaluating such programs and used to assess the bolsa escola program in Brazil. The results suggest that about 60 percent of poor 10- to 15-year-olds not in school enroll in response to the program. The program reduces the incidence of poverty by only a little more than one percentage point, however, and the Gini coefficient falls just half a point. Results are better for measures more sensitive to the bottom of the distribution, but the effect is never large.en-USCC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGOACCOUNTCASH TRANSFER PROGRAMSCASH TRANSFERSCHILD LABORCOUNTERFACTUALDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTSDROPOUTSEVALUATION METHODOLOGYEVALUATION METHODSFOOD FOR EDUCATIONFOOD POLICYHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD PER CAPITA INCOMEHOUSEHOLD SIZEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHOUSEHOLD WELFAREHUMAN CAPITALINCIDENCE OF POVERTYINEQUALITYMEANS TESTSMETHODOLOGYMODELINGNUTRITIONPARENTAL EDUCATIONPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOORPOOR CHILDRENPOOR FAMILIESPOOR HOUSEHOLDSPOOR PEOPLEPOVERTY GAPPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY PROFILEPOVERTY REDUCTIONPROGRAM DESIGNSRURALRURAL AREARURAL AREASSCENARIOSCENARIOSSCHOOL ATTENDANCESIMULATIONSIMULATION MODELSSIMULATIONSSOCIAL ASSISTANCESOCIAL PROGRAMSTARGETED TRANSFERSTARGETINGTECHNIQUESTRANSFER AMOUNTSTRANSFER BENEFITSWORKING CHILDRENJournal ArticleWorld Bank10.1596/17179