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Curbing Corruption Through Social Welfare Reform? The Effects of Mexico’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Good Government

Conditional cash transfer programs, an innovation in social welfare administration, have received considerable acclaim as a means of enhancing human capital and reducing leakage of public resources through corruption. While numerous studies examine the effects of the program on human capital indicators in Mexico and various other countries that have adopted the approach, little is known about the effects of these programs on levels of corruption and on political life more generally. Using data from Transparency International Mexico, the Federal Register of Civil Society Organizations, and the national census, this paper analyzes whether conditional cash transfers have any bearing on corruption but also on two other aspects of political life argued to affect government probity in the long term: the density of civil society organizations and the empowerment of women as indicated by levels of active involvement in civil society. The conclusions are encouraging with respect to reducing corruption but rather dismal regarding the effects on civil society and the empowerment of women.