UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series

The multidimensional impacts of the Conditional Cash Transfer program Juntos in Peru

Ricardo Morel Berendson & Liz Girón #2022-012

Policy decisions are sensitive to the conceptualization of poverty and, in line with the growing demand for multidimensional poverty measurement, we conducted an impact evaluation of Peru's largest social protection intervention - the conditional cash transfer program 'Juntos' - to further understand its effects on multidimensional poverty. We combine a propensity score matching with a difference-in-difference approach to estimate and compare two multidimensional indices created using the Alkire-Foster method. The first replicates the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) while the other is a Juntos-tailored MPI. We do not find robust and statistically significant effects of the program in either index. Despite finding steeper reductions among Juntos beneficiaries, particularly in education and health indicators, these changes cannot be statistically attributed to the program. We further conclude that using a multidimensional poverty index can be a highly useful evaluation tool when thoroughly adapted to the theory of change of the intervention under assessment.

JEL Classification: I32, I38

Keywords: conditional cash transfers, multidimensional poverty, Juntos, Peru

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