Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP11465
Authors: Alex Armand; Orazio Attanasio; Pedro Carneiro; Valrie Lechene
Abstract: This paper studies the differential effect of targeting cash transfers to men or women on the structure of household expenditures on non-durables. We study a policy intervention in the Republic of Macedonia, offering cash transfers to poor households, conditional on having their children attending secondary school. The recipient of the transfer is randomized across municipalities to be either the household head or the mother. Using data collected to evaluate the conditional cash transfer program, we show that the gender of the recipient has an effect on the structure of expenditure shares. Targeting transfers to women increases the expenditure share on food by about 4 to 5%. To study the allocation of expenditures within the food basket, we estimate a demand system for food and we find that targeting payments to mothers induces, for different food categories, not only a significant intercept shift, but also a change in the slope of the Engel curve.
Keywords: CCT; Intrahousehold; Gender; Expenditure
JEL Codes: D12; D13; E21; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increase in food expenditure shares (D12) | not driven by increase in number of households purchasing food (D19) |
| gender of the transfer recipient (F24) | household expenditure patterns (D12) |
| targeting cash transfers to women (F35) | expenditure share on food (D12) |
| households where mothers receive transfers (D13) | higher share of total expenditure to food (D12) |
| targeting transfers to mothers (J13) | more nutritious allocation of resources (O15) |
| targeting transfers to mothers (J13) | significant intercept shift in Engel curve for food expenditures (D12) |
| targeting transfers to mothers (J13) | change in slope of Engel curve for different food categories (D12) |
| gender of the transfer recipient (F24) | determine expenditure patterns (D12) |