Effects of BISP, a Poverty-Alleviating Cash Transfer, on Recipients&#x27; Preferences for Redistribution and Political Participation

Iudice, Matteo

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Year:: 2022
Contributor:: Iudice, Matteo (creator); Foster, Andrew (Advisor); Michalopoulos, Stylianos (Reader); Steinberg, Bryce (Reader); Brown University. Department of Economics (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: causal inference; Welfare State; Economic development; Cash transfer program; Regression discontinuity; Pakistan; Political participation
Extent:: xiv, 98 p.

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Abstract:: In this dissertation I examine the effects that a poverty-alleviating cash transfer administered in Pakistan for the past ten years, the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), has sorted on political participation and perception of the welfare state. The program was not intended to target these outcomes, and the results of this study are potentially interesting for the design of cash transfer programs in similar contexts. The first chapter looks at how the long-term exposure to a cash transfer program, targeted at women, changed their preferences for redistribution. Do cash transfer programs, implemented in high poverty settings, crowd out preferences for public goods provision, such as public schools, hospitals, and basic infrastructure? We use a regression discontinuity design to estimate program effects on women's attitudes towards a range of re-distributive polices. Compatibly with theories of redistribution, we find that female program recipients of the cash transfer reduce their preferences for redistributive social policies, even in settings of extreme poverty. However, we provide evidence that this shift in preferences is not only driven by the income effect generated by the cash transfer. Instead, we propose a mechanism that draws attention to variation in women's intra-household agency and we suggest that, in households in which women's agency is not challenged by senior household members, female beneficiaries see greater utility of a cash transfers compared to traditional welfare provision. The second chapter studies the effect of receiving programmatic cash transfers on marginalized citizens' political behavior. Can cash transfers targeted exclusively at women increase their political participation in settings where gender gaps in participation are high? We find no evidence that the BISP cash transfer resulted in increased electoral returns for the benefit-giving party, or subsequent incumbents who claimed credit for the program. Instead, we find evidence that access to regular government cash transfers has helped reduce female program recipient's economic dependency on local patronage networks, such as landlords (zamindars) and traditional village governance (panchayats). However, this reduction in dependency on traditional patrons has not increased program recipients' democratic engagement with the local state or political parties. These results point to other structural barriers that constrain women’s political participation that cannot be addressed by cash transfers. Both chapters have been coauthored with R. R. Jamil, Department of Political Science.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2022

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Iudice, Matteo, "Effects of BISP, a Poverty-Alleviating Cash Transfer, on Recipients' Preferences for Redistribution and Political Participation" (2022). Economics Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:nyzmxtj4/

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Economics Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Economics department.
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Effects of BISP, a Poverty-Alleviating Cash Transfer, on Recipients' Preferences for Redistribution and Political Participation