ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM DE-ESCALATION AND IPV IN ECUADOR

Study description

There is growing evidence cash transfer programs reduce IPV in low- and middle-income countries, confirming their potentials for IPV prevention. However, poverty reduction programs are not indefinite. Graduation from, or de-escalation of, anti-poverty programs are expected, in particular in times of budgetary constraints as reminded by the current economic crisis resulting from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. This study will leverage plausible exogenous variation in the timing of the nationwide de-escalation of an Ecuadorian anti-poverty cash transfer program, Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH). Introduced in 2003, BDH is Ecuador’s flagship cash transfer program. In 2013, the Ecuadorian government redesigned eligibility criteria to reclassify families because of major fiscal constraints. This led to a 20% reduction in the total number of beneficiaries. Empirically, this consists in a natural experiment that offers the opportunity to assess the persistence of cash transfer receipt in preventing IPV. The study will rely on nationally-representative secondary data collected before and after this de-escalation. The study will seek to answer the following questions: (1) Do reductions in IPV persist upon de-escalation of a cash transfer program? (2) What are possible mechanisms behind the presence (or absence) of the estimated impacts?