Spillovers from Conditional Cash Transfer Programs:Bolsa Família and Crime in Urban Brazil

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the impact of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs on crime. Making use of a unique dataset combining detailed school characteristics with time and geo-referenced crime information from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, we estimate the contemporaneous effect of the Bolsa Família program on crime. We address the endogeneity of CCT coverage by exploiting the 2008 expansion of the program to adolescents aged 16 and 17. We construct an instrument that combines the timing of expansion and the initial demographic composition of schools to identify plausibly exogenous variations in the number of children covered by Bolsa Família. We find a robust and significant negative impact of Bolsa Família coverage on crime. The evidence suggests that the main effect works through increased household income or changed peer group, rather than from incapacitation from time spent in school

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Texto para discussão ; No. 599

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education: Government Policy ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
• Subject: Öffentliche Sozialleistungen ; Familienpolitik ; Wirkungsanalyse ; Kriminalität ; Schätzung ; Brasilien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Chioda, Laura ; de Mello, João Manoel Pinho ; Soares, Rodrigo Reis
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Departamento de Economia
• (where): Rio de Janeiro
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/176082
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET