| Notes |
During my 18 years administering State and local social safetynet programs, I have been a part of a number of efforts that modeled this approach. Today I would like to share some lessons
learned in those experiences.
In New York City, we performed rigorous evaluations of over 30
new initiatives as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Center for Economic
Opportunity. One initiative in particular received a lot of attention,
the first conditional cash transfer program in the developed world.
The program, Family Rewards, provided cash payments to individuals who took positive actions like going to the doctor and ensuring their children regularly attended school. MDRC conducted
the evaluation of the experiment.
While participants saw lower poverty levels as a result of the
program, most of the income gains came from the transfers themselves, and not from increased earnings. Once the program ended,
the treatments group’s incomes were not substantially different
from the control group. |