Tulane University

Nadia von Jacobi, visiting researcher at CIPR in 2013, has published her work in the United Nations University Wider Working Paper Series. The paper, titled “Can the context mediate macro-policy outcomes? Contextual differences in the returns to Bolsa Familia in Brazil,” examines local institutional and structural (meso) factors that can play a role in mediating the returns to a macro-social policy. Full text of the paper can be found here.

Abstract
Local institutional and structural (meso) factors can play a role in mediating the returns to a macro-social policy. I focus on the Brazilian cash-transfer-programme Bolsa Familia and check how contextual features influence the returns to transfers. Building on Amartya Sen’s work, I assess the return to the policy in terms of non-monetary achievement indicators in the dimensions of education, health and employment quality. I use the extensive CadÚnico of the Brazilian Ministry for Social Development comprising all beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia, and a meso-level dataset containing information on economic structure, socio-demographic and institutional characteristics of Brazil’s 5565 municipalities in a random coefficients (multilevel) model. First results confirm that a number of contextual factors play a role in increasing the conversion of transfers into human development.