IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/revi24/340955.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No impact of rural development policies? No synergies with CCTs? The IFAD-supported Gavião Project in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Costa, Lorena Vieira
  • Helfand, Steven M.
  • Souza, André Portela de

Abstract

We estimate the impacts of an IFAD-supported rural development project (Pro-Gavião). Because public policies are frequently implemented simultaneously rather than in isolation, we also estimate the impacts of—and possible synergies with—the Brazilian conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Bolsa Família. Developed jointly by IFAD and the State Government of Bahia, Pro-Gavião was a rural development project in 13 contiguous municipalities between 1997 and 2005. Census tract level data were extracted for the analysis from the 1995-96 and 2006 Agricultural Censuses. The evaluation uses propensity score matching to construct a control group of untreated census tracts, and a difference-in-differences estimation to identify impacts. The outcomes analyzed include land productivity, agricultural income and child labor. Although Pro-Gavião involved significant investments in the region, the results suggest little if any program impact, or synergies between the two programs. The unexpected null findings are robust to alternative approaches to identifying the treated census tracts, matching techniques, and heterogeneity in several dimensions. We show that the lack of impacts is not driven by adverse rainfall in the treated communities, or the influence of other programs in the control communities. Alternative explanations for the null results are explored.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa, Lorena Vieira & Helfand, Steven M. & Souza, André Portela de, 2023. "No impact of rural development policies? No synergies with CCTs? The IFAD-supported Gavião Project in Brazil," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 61(4), January.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:revi24:340955
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.340955
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340955/files/Lorena%20Vieira%20Costa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.340955?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Macours, Karen & Premand, Patrick & Vakis, Renos, 2012. "Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Experimental evidence with lessons for climate change adaptation," CEPR Discussion Papers 8940, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer & Jonathan Robinson, 2011. "Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2350-2390, October.
    3. Eliana Cardoso & André Portela F. Souza, 2009. "The Impact of Cash Transfers on Child Labor and School Enrollment in Brazil," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Peter F. Orazem & Guilherme Sedlacek & Zafiris Tzannatos (ed.), Child Labor and Education in Latin America, chapter 8, pages 133-146, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert & T. S. Jayne, 2017. "Estimating the Enduring Effects of Fertiliser Subsidies on Commercial Fertiliser Demand and Maize Production: Panel Data Evidence from Malawi," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 70-97, February.
    5. Raj Chetty & Adam Looney & Kory Kroft, 2009. "Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1145-1177, September.
    6. Chitolina, Lia & Foguel, Miguel Nathan & Menezes-Filho, Naercio Aquino, 2016. "The impact of the expansion of the bolsa familia program on the time allocation of youths and their parents," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 70(2), July.
    7. Melissa Dell & Pablo Querubin, 2018. "Nation Building Through Foreign Intervention: Evidence from Discontinuities in Military Strategies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 701-764.
    8. Sascha O. Becker & Andrea Ichino, 2002. "Estimation of average treatment effects based on propensity scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 2(4), pages 358-377, November.
    9. Norbert Schady & Ariel Fiszbein & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Niall Keleher & Margaret Grosh & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597.
    10. Devereux, Stephen, 2016. "Social protection for enhanced food security in sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 52-62.
    11. Brown, Colin G. & Longworth, John W., 1992. "Multilateral assistance and sustainable development: The case of an IFAD project in the pastoral region of China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(11), pages 1663-1674, November.
    12. Karen Macours & Patrick Premand & Renos Vakis, 2022. "Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Can Productive Safety Nets Help Households Manage Climatic Variability?," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2438-2470.
    13. Del Carpio, Ximena V. & Loayza, Norman V. & Wada, Tomoko, 2016. "The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on the Amount and Type of Child Labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 33-47.
    14. de Brauw, Alan & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Roy, Shalini, 2015. "The Impact of Bolsa Família on Schooling," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 303-316.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Costa, Lorena Vieira & Helfand, Steven M. & Souza, André Portela, 2018. "No impact of rural development policies?: no synergies with conditional cash transfers?: an investigation of the IFAD-Supported Gavião Project in Brazil," Textos para discussão 489, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    2. Martínez Flores, Fernanda & Milusheva, Sveta & Reichert, Arndt R. & Reitmann, Ann-Kristin, 2024. "Climate anomalies and international migration: A disaggregated analysis for West Africa," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Park, Bokyeong & Kennedy Ochieng, Haggai, 2024. "The impacts of rural development project on resilience to climatic disasters: The case of Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Premand, Patrick & Stoeffler, Quentin, 2022. "Cash transfers, climatic shocks and resilience in the Sahel," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    5. Leight, Jessica & Hirvonen, Kalle & Zafar, Sarim, 2024. "The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis," OSF Preprints dnc2r, Center for Open Science.
    6. Costa, L.V. & Helfand, S. & Souza, A.P., 2018. "Rural Development Policies and Conditional Cash Transfers in Brazil: An Impact Evaluation of the IFAD-Supported Gavi o Project and Potential Synergies with Bolsa Fam lia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277263, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Dragan Filipovich & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Alma Santillán Hernández, 2018. "Campaign externalities, programmatic spending, and voting preferences in rural Mexico: The case of Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera programme," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-27, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Can Tang & Liqiu Zhao & Zhong Zhao, 2019. "Free Education Helps Combat Child Labor? The Effect of a Free Compulsory Education Reform in Rural China," Working Papers 2019-036, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Macours, Karen, 2012. "Volatility, Risk and Household Poverty: Micro-evidence from Randomized Control Trials," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 128293, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Dragan Filipovich & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Alma Santillán Hernández, 2018. "Campaign externalities, programmatic spending, and voting preferences in rural Mexico: The case of Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera programme," WIDER Working Paper Series 027, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Yoonyoung Cho & David Robalino & Samantha Watson, 2016. "Supporting self-employment and small-scale entrepreneurship: potential programs to improve livelihoods for vulnerable workers," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, December.
    12. Zhao, Xi & Wang, Julia Shu-Huah, 2021. "The effects of multiple welfare program participatifon on educational expenditures and time use: Evidence from the social safety net in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    13. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2017. "Sustaining Impacts When Transfers End: Women Leaders, Aspirations, and Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 325-355, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Nicholas Kilimani, 2015. "Vulnerability to Climatic Variability: An Assessment of Drought Prevalence on Water Resources Availability and Implications for the Ugandan Economy," Working Papers 201562, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    15. Alejandro de la Fuente & Eduardo Ortiz-Juárez & Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán, 2018. "Living on the edge: vulnerability to poverty and public transfers in Mexico," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 10-27, January.
    16. Stoeffler, Quentin & Patrick, Premand, 2018. "Do cash transfer increase poor household resilience? Evidence from rural Niger," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274216, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Yoonyoung Cho, 2024. "Entrepreneurship for the poor in developing countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 167-167, April.
    18. Harold Alderman & Ruslan Yemtsov, 2014. "How Can Safety Nets Contribute to Economic Growth?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20.
    19. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    20. Cho, Yoonyoung & Honorati, Maddalena, 2014. "Entrepreneurship programs in developing countries: A meta regression analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 110-130.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Community/Rural/Urban Development;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:revi24:340955. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inrapfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.