Conditional Cash Transfers: A Social Investment Instrument in Times of Economic Crisis and Austerity?

Conditional cash transfers receive recognition as a way to address poverty within present and future generations while also promoting economic growth by investing in human capital. Such policies have been used extensively across Latin America and are now being promoted as part of the European Union’s ‘Social Investment Package’. We assess and compare these policies in Latin America and in Europe. Specifically, we question whether they can be considered social investment policies and, in doing so, illuminate the various factors that condition the success of such policies. We draw particular attention to the need for policy approaches to take a life-course perspective and the risk of ‘policy crowding out’ in the European context. Finally, we elaborate on the implications of a uniform trend in the passage of these policies, the timing of their implementation in the aftermath of economic crisis.