Equality of Opportunity in Argentina - A Case Study of the Conditional Cash Transfer Program "Universal Allocation per Child"

This study is an evaluation of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program Universal Allocation per Child (AUH) in Argentina as a policy to reduce inequality of opportunity among children. Creating a Human Development Index (HOI), as developed by Paes de Barros et al. in 2009, I measure the changes in level of opportunity before and after the implementation of the AUH program, and I complement the study with interviews with recipients of the program and key actors within the Government and administrative agencies in Argentina. I use household survey data from Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH) for the years 2009-2012. There is no natural control group since the program was implemented nationwide to all that comply with the prerequisites at once, but using the methodology of Bustos and Villafañe (2011) I create a control group representing the eligible part of the population and compare their index to the not eligible population, and also compare the opportunities between the eligible that actually receive the transfer and the eligible that don’t in 2010 to 2012. I find the comparability between the last two groups questionable however. The study shows an improvement in opportunities over the time period studied and the change has been greater for the targeted population, but causality between the AUH program and the improvement in opportunities cannot be determined