Oportunidades: Program Effect on Consumption, Low Participation, and Methodological Issues. Economic Development and

In this paper we estimate the effect of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades, on consumption, and we explore some issues related to participation into the program and to the estimation of AIT and ATT effects. We discuss the comparability of treatment and control areas, provide evidence that the expected transfer may not be sufficiently high to induce many eligible households to participate, and find positive effects on consumption. ∗Several staff at Oportunidades were very helpful with questions about the details of the data. Vincenzo Di Maro provided valuable assistance with the data creation