Covid-19 in Lateinamerika: Die Bedeutung sozialer Sicherung für Haushalte mit Kindern

• Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Merike Blofield
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Empirische Sozialforschung ; Politikwissenschaft
• Förderung: Förderung von 2021 bis 2023
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 468209777

• Erstellungsjahr: 2023

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Our research aimed to examine the socio-political implications of social protection responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically for families with children, whose poverty rates were three times those of the elderly. To do so, we focused on public opinion on cash transfers, a surprisingly understudied dimension of an otherwise robust literature on cash transfers. We were particularly interested in the demographic dimension of the transfers: whether, on the one hand, they reached households with children, and on the other hand, people’s perceptions of and support for cash transfer programs for children. This is useful from a policy perspective, given that cash transfers toward children have been found to be an effective protection against extreme poverty. Knowing more about public opinion helps us understand the political space that may or may not exist regarding expanding them. Theoretically, the project built on existing literature explaining determinants of social policy more broadly. Our goal was to test a novel hypothesis regarding relational preferences; specifically, whether the gendered experience of intra-household composition and dynamics influences perceptions and preferences on social policy. To answer our research questions most comprehensively, we sought to examine nationally representative public opinion in a range of countries that included variation in levels of economic development and robustness of social policy legacies. On this basis, we designed and implemented phone surveys in 2022 in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. The surveys included a total of 8,000 respondents and took place between April and August 2022. We have to date produced seven country-specific policy briefs on public opinion toward cash transfers with children, in collaboration with UNICEF and with country-based experts,. These are in press and will be published online early October, 2023. Within each country-specific policy context, they document the overwhelming support for the existence of cash transfer programs for children that cover at least a basic food basket, and the variation in support regarding eligibility criteria. Our briefs also provide estimates of the fiscal resources needed to enhance coverage and sufficiency, and thus serve as a contribution to evidence-based debate on anti-poverty policies toward children. We are engaged in several upcoming events with multilateral institutions, to share our descriptive findings with policy-makers. We are currently working on two manuscripts to submit to peer-reviewed manuscripts. The first tests our hypotheses and finds support for our argument regarding relational preferences and support for cash transfers. Political science research on political preferences has been blind to integrating families and households as relevant political units, focusing instead on individual, occupational, and community-level factors. Thus, our findings promise to make a significant contribution. The second analyzes the role of information in preference formation, leveraging an experiment we embedded in the surveys.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

• Towards a Global Universal Basic Income for Children. T-7 Policy Brief
  Blofield; Merike; Jorge Cuartas; Fernando Filgueira; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Diego Sánchez-Ancochea
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Argentina: Nueve de cada diez personas apoya una mayor suficiencia. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Camila Arza
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Chile: Consenso social que apoya transferencias adecuadas. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield y. Juliana Martínez Franzoni
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Colombia: Nueve de cada diez apoya ampliar montos. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR con apoyo de DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Silvia Otero Bahamón
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Costa Rica: Nueve de cada diez apoya mayores montos. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Luis Ángel Oviedo
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Guatemala: Abrumador apoyo al aumento de cobertura y suficiencia. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Luis Ángel Oviedo
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Mexico: Claro apoyo a mayor cobertura y suficiencia. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Fabián Borges
  
• Opinión Pública sobre las transferencias monetarias para niños, niñas y adolescentes en Perú: Nueve de cada diez apoya mayores montos. Nota de política, UNICEF/UCR with support from DFG.
  Merike Blofield; Juliana Martínez Franzoni & Johanna Pieper