Sara Gleason
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Luciana de Souza Leão, LSA Collegiate Fellow
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Sociology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 5 (3pm-3:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 20
Presenter: 1
Abstract
Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCT) are cutting edge welfare programs, as they aim to eliminate poverty through direct governmental payments, provided that the recipients abide by certain conditionalities. When analyzing the outcomes of these programs, it is essential to address their interplay with politics. However, current research does not fully take into account how political changes over time influence the impacts of CCT programs. Throughout my guided research, I have helped to strengthen this connection through a comparative CCT literature review, analyzing World Bank data, and tracing how CTT implementation has varied under various presidential administrations within Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa. As part of the literature review, I evaluated articles that compared Brazil and South Africa to strengthen our research’s transcontinental analysis. Then, I compiled and sorted World Bank data to identify CCT performance under a variety of conditions and helped identify data changes and inconsistencies among each country. Finally, I analyzed articles and reports that identify CCT implementation across various presidential administrations in Mexico and Brazil. My research of CCT programs in Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa is crucial to identify their relative effectiveness, in spite of political changes over time. Although CCTs are relatively new policies, their targeted approach shows that these middle-income countries are global trendsetters in successful poverty elimination.
Authors: Sara Gleason, Luciana de Souza Leão
Research Method: Data Collection and Analysis
