Do Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Reduce Infant Mortality? Long-term Evidence From Mexico

Susan Parker, University of Maryland
Soomin Ryu , University of Maryland

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs were introduced in Mexico in 1997 to alleviate current and future poverty by augmenting human capital levels of children and youth from poor families. Despite a number of short-term evidence of its impacts on children's education or health, there is a surprising lack of longer-term studies on health impacts. This paper studies the long-term effects of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program on neonatal, infant and under-five child mortality. We combine data on mortality using vital statistics with administrative information on program beneficiaries at the municipal level to estimate program impacts for the period 1997–2012. Moreover, we account for under-reporting in the estimation of child mortality by applying indirect Brass method, which none of previous studies has corrected before. Last, given the program’s emphasis on gender, we provide estimates by gender, analyzing whether differential impacts on mortality by gender exist.

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 Presented in Session 5. Health & Mortality 1