The review finds strong evidence that CCTs could lead to a rise in overall household consumption, increase investment in productive assets, reduce child labour and increase school attendance. The evidence on the impact of CCTs on adult labour is mixed. There is only limited evidence of spillover effects within communities in terms of poverty reduction. The review includes 46 studies covering 11 CCT programmes in eight Latin American countries and one programme in Pakistan.
Findings include the following:
- The evidence is mixed as to the impacts on adult labour, with increases in market work by both men and women in some contexts and increases in leisure and domestic work in others.
- There is persuasive evidence that CCTs protect household consumption and educational patterns during times of crisis.
- There is limited evidence that CCTs have spill-over effects within communities in terms of poverty reduction, increased loans and transfers and household behaviour.
- There is no evidence that CCTs lead to inflationary pressure in the local economy.
Evidence about the economic impacts of CCTs that meets the strict methodological criteria laid out in this paper is still extremely scarce. Very limited attention is paid to causal pathways. More purposively designed surveys which incorporate both quantitative and qualitative information on the theories of change that generate impacts would add greatly to studies’ value.
