Social network na participação de programas de transferência de renda: evidências para o programa Bolsa Família

Abstract

Several studies have evidenced the importance of the social network's effects on the participation of income transfer programs. In this context, this study aims to empirically analyze the effects of the social network on the probability of a family participating in the Bolsa Familia Program (PBF). The network was constructed based on the study of Aizer & Currie (2004), using beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries families of the PBF, who live in the same postal address code (CEP) and are of the same racial group. The mechanism linked to the effect to be measured is that this social network can be determinant for the non-beneficiaries families of the PBF to learn about the program's criteria, eligibilities and conditionalities with its neighbors of the same racial group, by sharing the information. As an empirical strategy, the Logit Method with fixed effects was used, with the information of the families extracted in the “Cadastro Único” for the years 2013 to 2015. The main results obtained show that the social network has a positive impact on the probability of family participation in the PBF. Even when controlling the unobserved characteristics of the families and the interaction with the availability of contacts, the social network effect remains positive and significant. These results suggest that there is local learning in the PBF, where non-beneficiaries living in areas where they have many beneficiaries will be more likely to become aware of and thus become beneficiaries of the PBF.