Study Overview
Data from a controlled randomised trial are used to estimate the effect of Mexico’s conditional cash transfer programme, Oportunidades, on birth outcomes, and to examine the pathways by which it works. Birth weights average 127.3 grams higher, and low birth weight incidence is 44.5 per cent lower among beneficiary mothers. Better birth outcomes are explained entirely by better quality prenatal care. Oportunidades affected quality through empowering women with information about adequate healthcare content to expect better care, and with skills and social support to negotiate better care. Efforts to empower the less well-off are necessary for public services to fully benefit the poor.
Study Results
This study demonstrates that Oportunidades resulted in improved birth outcomes. Specifically, using the randomized design, we find that beneficiary births were 127.3- gram higher and 44.5 percent less likely to be low birth weight than non-beneficiary births. In examining the pathways for this result, we conclude that these improvements in birth weight were primarily attributable to improvements in the quality of prenatal care, that the improved quality is a manifestation of the programís empowering women to demand their right to quality care. The program empowered women by informing women about the importance of prenatal care, the content of prenatal, their rights to this content, providing social support, and encouraging them to be informed and active health consumers.
Intervention: Conditional cash transfer program