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Mitigating Myths about Policy Effectiveness: Evaluation of Mexico’s Antipoverty and Human Resource Investment Program

Author

Listed:
  • Jere R. Behrman

    (Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania)

  • Emmanuel Skoufias

    (World Bank)

Abstract

What is known about the effectiveness of many policies is dominated by prior beliefs or myths rather than by careful analyses. This article discusses an important exception to this generalization in which, in sharp contrast to most previous and much concurrent and subsequent practice, serious efforts at evaluation were implemented from the start: the Mexican PROGRESA/Oportunidades antipoverty and human resource investment program, initiated in 1997. The article begins by introducing the program and providing relevant background material and then summarizes initial evaluation results in rural areas, where both of the authors were extensively involved in the evaluation, and then turns more briefly to the current evaluation of Oportunidades in urban areas and the longer-run evaluation of PROGRESA/Oportunidades in rural areas. This program has been an important model not only in terms of using conditional cash transfers to induce human resource investments but also in being serious about policy evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jere R. Behrman & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2006. "Mitigating Myths about Policy Effectiveness: Evaluation of Mexico’s Antipoverty and Human Resource Investment Program," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 606(1), pages 244-275, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:606:y:2006:i:1:p:244-275
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716206288956
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jere R. Behrman & John Hoddinott, 2005. "Programme Evaluation with Unobserved Heterogeneity and Selective Implementation: The Mexican PROGRESA Impact on Child Nutrition," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(4), pages 547-569, August.
    2. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2003. "An Evaluation of the Performance of Regression Discontinuity Design on PROGRESA," IZA Discussion Papers 827, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Behrman, Jere R & Sengupta, Piyali & Todd, Petra, 2005. "Progressing through PROGRESA: An Impact Assessment of a School Subsidy Experiment in Rural Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 237-275, October.
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