Evaluation and Design of Development Policies

Conditional Cash Transfers: Education

Education Choices in Mexico: Using a Structural  Model and a Randomized Experiment to Evaluate Progresa (2012), with Costas Meghir and Ana Santiago. Forthcoming in Review of Economic Studies.

Children's schooling and work in the presence of a conditional cash transfer programme in rural Colombia (2010), with E. Fitzsimons, A. Gomez, D. Lopez, C. Meghir and A. Mesnard. Economic Development and Cultural Change. January, 58:2, 181-210.

Using randomised experiments and structural models for 'scaling up': evidence from the PROGRESA evaluation. IFS Working Papers WP03/05. Institute for Fiscal Studies: London, UK. Draft December 2003.

Better Coating for The Silver Bullet: Improving Conditional Cash Trasfers in Urban Mexico, with Costas Meghir, Ana Santiago and Andrew Shepherd. Draft October 2008.

Re-Evaluating Conditional Cash Transfers: Is The Oportunidades Primary School Stipend Necessary?, with Marta Rubio-Codina, available soon.

Conditional Cash Transfers: Consumption

The Demand for Food of Poor Urban Mexican Households: Understanding Policy Impacts using Structural Models (2012), with Manuela Angelucci. Forthcoming in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

Food and Cash Transfers: Evidence from Colombia (2012), with Erich Battistin and Alice Mesnard. The Economic Journal. 122 (599): 92–124.

Oportunidades: Program Effect on Consumption, Low Participation and Methodological Issues (2009), with Manuela Angelucci. Economic Development and Cultural Change. April, 57(3): 479-506.

The impact of a conditional cash transfer programme on consumption in Colombia (2006), with A. Mesnard. Fiscal Studies. December, 27(4): 421–442.

The impact of Oportunidades on Consumption, Saving and Transfers, with Manuela Angelucci and Vincenzo Di Maro. Draft October 2011.

Conditional Cash Transfers: Social Capital

Building Trust: Conditional Cash Transfers and Social Capital (2009), with Luca Pellerano and Sandra Polania-Reyes. Fiscal Studies (June) 30(2): 139–177.

Conditional cash transfers and Social Capital, with Luca Pellerano and Sandra Polania-Reyes. Draft June 2012.

Evaluation of different programs

The impact of cash transfers to poor women in Colombia on BMI and obesity: prospective cohort study (2011), with Ian Forde, Tarani Chandola, Sandra Garcia and Michael Marmot. International Journal of Obesity. December 1(6).

Behind the scenes: experience managing and conducting large impact evaluations in Colombia (2011), with Bertha Briceño and Laura Cuesta. Journal of Development Effectiveness. 3 (4):470-501.

Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Colombia:  Evidence from a Randomized Trial (2011), with Adriana Kugler and Costas Meghir. American Economic Journal. Applied Economics. July, 3(3): 188-220.

Community Nurseries and the Nutritional Status of Poor Children. Evidence from Colombia, with Vincenzo Di Maro and Marcos Vera-Hernandez (Appendix available here). Draft June 2012.

Formal Labor Market and Pension Wealth: Evaluating the 2008 Chilean Pension reform, with Costas Meghir and Andres Otero. Draft March 2011.

Child Care Provision, Its Use and Nutritional Outcomes, with Marcos Vera-Hernandez. Draft March 2009.

Other papers on behaviour in developing countries

Risk Pooling, Risk Preferences and Social Networks (2012), with Abigail Barr, Juan Camilo Cárdenas, Garance Genicot and Costas Meghir. American Economic Journal. Applied Economics, 4(2): 134–67.

Education Choices and Returns on the Labour and Marriage Markets: Evidence from Data on Subjective Expectations, with Katja Kaufmann. Draft January 2012.

Education Choices and Returns to Schooling: Intrahousehold Decision Making, Gender and Subjective Expectations, with Katja Kaufmann. Draft January 2012.

Group Lending or Individual Lending? Evidence from a Randomised Field Experiment in Mongolia, with Britta Augsburg, Ralph De Haas, Emla Fitzsimons and Heike Harmgart. Draft December 2011.

The welfare consequences of increases in food prices in rural México and Colombia, with Vincenzo Di Maro, Valerie Lechene and David Phillips. Draft February 2009.

Do the Poor Pay More?, with Chris Frayne. Draft January 2006.