Poverty and Employability Effects of Workfare Programs in Argentina

PMMA Working Paper No. 2006-14

34 Pages Posted: 15 Jun 2006 Last revised: 12 Jul 2018

See all articles by Lucas Ronconi

Lucas Ronconi

University of Buenos Aires - CONICET

Juan Sanguinetti

University of San Andres, Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Institucional (CEDI)

Sandra Fachelli Oliva

Ministerio de Economia, Argentina

Date Written: June 1, 2006

Abstract

In 1993 Argentina began implementing workfare programs, and workfare has become a central public policy starting 2002 when the government increased the number of beneficiaries from 100,000 to 2 million people in a country of 38 million. We explore targeting, poverty and employability effects of workfare before 2002 based on the permanent household survey (EPH). We find that the program was pro-poor although more than one third of participants did not satisfy the eligibility criteria. Our estimates suggest that the income of participants increased during treatment - particularly for women - indicating beneficial short run poverty effects. However, the long run effects of the program are not obvious due to selection on treatment completion. We present evidence suggesting that - for a large fraction of participants - the program generated dependency and did not increase their human capital.

Keywords: Workfare, evaluation, Argentina

JEL Classification: J48, I38

Suggested Citation

Ronconi, Lucas and Sanguinetti, Juan and Fachelli Oliva, Sandra, Poverty and Employability Effects of Workfare Programs in Argentina (June 1, 2006). PMMA Working Paper No. 2006-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=908566 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.908566

Lucas Ronconi (Contact Author)

University of Buenos Aires - CONICET ( email )

Buenos Aires
Argentina

Juan Sanguinetti

University of San Andres, Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Institucional (CEDI) ( email )

Vita Dumas 284
(1644) Victoria, Pcia
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1644
Argentina

Sandra Fachelli Oliva

Ministerio de Economia, Argentina ( email )

Argentina

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