Impact of cash transfers on women’s time use: The Ecuadorian case

Cash transfers are popular poverty alleviation programs in Latin America which aim to accumulate human capital among children in poor families. However, most of these programs evaluations have overlooked the effects they have on women, usually the ones who receive the cash transfer, and the time they devote to productive and reproductive purposes. This paper, using data from Ecuador and an instrumental variable approach, finds that the unconditional cash transfer in this country decreases the hours beneficiaries dedicate to productive work and does not change their reproductive workload. These effects are found for a particular group of the Ecuadorian women.