The effect of cash transfers on fertility: evidence from Argentina

In 2009 Argentina introduced a large poverty-alleviation program (AUH) that provides monthly cash transfers per child to households without workers in the formal sector. In this paper we study the potential unintended effect of this program on fertility. We apply a difference-in-difference strategy...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Garganta, Santiago, Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos, Marchionni, Mariana, Tappatá, Mariano
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositorio:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/104754
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/104754
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Ciencias Económicas
Fertility
Cash transfers
Social protection
AUH
Argentina
Descrição
Resumo:In 2009 Argentina introduced a large poverty-alleviation program (AUH) that provides monthly cash transfers per child to households without workers in the formal sector. In this paper we study the potential unintended effect of this program on fertility. We apply a difference-in-difference strategy comparing the probability of having a new child among eligible and ineligible mothers both before and after the program inception. The intention to treat estimations suggest a significant positive impact on fertility in households with at least one child (around 2 percentage points), but no significant effect on childless households. Given the short time window since the implementation of the AUH, we are unable to identify whether this positive effect reflects changes in the timing of births or in the equilibrium number of children.