Premium
Bolsa Família and the needy: is allocation contributing to equity in Brazil?
Author(s) -
Haddad Mônica A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1445
Subject(s) - scrutiny , equity (law) , social equality , public economics , inequality , economics , political science , economic growth , development economics , market economy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , law
This paper examines whether the Brazilian social programme Bolsa Família is contributing to greater social equality within the country. As a measure of success, we rely on the programme's impact on public‐school enrolment, which we consider an input for social equity. Our findings show that policy makers should continue with the same system of allocation used in 2006, which proved to be contributing to greater social equality. We suggest policy maker's direct attention to the 2006 residual map depicting municipalities that have extremely over‐ and under‐predicted values, which may represent misallocation of public funds, and therefore may require some scrutiny. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.