The crisis of welfare public expenditure in OECD countries, in particular at local level, calls for a fresh rethinking on the way money is used for services and distributed to families and individuals for welfare subsidies and help. Policies combining cash transfer to poor families, neediest individuals or students with asset building choices like personal investments in good practices (education, school attendance, preventive health, saving) are spreading in the developing world but still scattered in OECD countries. Yet outcomes of experiments on behavioural drivers could give new insights in local policies with the careful analysis of micro incentives and possible design for better policies. In this context the course aims to give participants a fresh overview of the main available instruments to design a conditional cash transfer (CCT) policy at local level alongside with deep inside from case studies coming from both industrialized and developing Countries.
Course Programme
INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL ELEMENTS (F. Becchis and A. Gallice) - Introduction to Turin School of Local Regulation and presentation of the course - An overview on welfare policies in the framework of the ongoing economic crisis - Methodological introduction to CCT with some hints on mechanism design and game theory - Microeconomic theoretical elements of CCT: “living on benefits” professionals; information asymmetries (adverse selection, moral hazard problems, …)
CCT AND FIELD EXPERIMENTS: EXPERIENCES AND CASE STUDIES - Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Children's Health, Education and Development: the case of Opportunity New York City (J.L. Aber) - Monetary Incentives and Student Achievement in a Depressed Labour Market: an Italian case (V. Scoppa ) - Experiences of CCT programs in France (V. Chiodi) - Cash transfers against extreme poverty in Bangladesh: differences and similarities with CCT programs in developed countries (S. Gulesci)
WORKING GROUPS - Critical analysis on a Conditional Cash Transfer project implemented in Torino by a local institution. Participants will be provided with materials about this case study before the beginning of the course.
Target Participants
(minimum 10 - maximum 25 participants) - Managers and practitioners of grant-giving organizations (foundations, charities, NGOs, …) - Public officials and policy-makers in charge of designing local policies for welfare - Officials in charge of designing and managing incentive policies and instruments in the education sector - Professionals - Researchers
Course Faculty
John Lawrence ABER Distinguished Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and an A.B. from Harvard University. He is an internationally recognized expert in child development and social policy. His basic research examines the influence of poverty and violence, at the family and community levels, on the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive and academic development of children and youth. Dr. Aber also designs and conducts rigorous evaluations of innovative programs and policies for children, youth and families, such as violence prevention, literacy development, welfare reform and comprehensive services initiatives.
Franco BECCHIS Scientific director of Turin School of Local Regulation and of Fondazione per l’Ambiente since its creation, where he coordinates research programmes on the interaction between economics, energy and environment and on local public services, as well as capacity building and support activities for local public entities. Former contract professor in Environmental Economics at the Polytechnic of Torino and University of East Piedmont, and now at the Saint John International University in Vinovo (Torino). His scientific interests and his publications range from public economics to environmental and regulatory economics.
Vera CHIODI Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), where she is currently working on three randomized evaluations focusing on education, housing and conditional cash transfers in France. She holds a Ph.D. from the Paris School of Economics. As a research assistant at the Inter-American Development Bank between 2005 and 2007, she was part of the evaluation team of the Mexican program, Oportunidades (Progresa) and also she has worked on the implementation of household and small enterprises surveys in Haiti. In addition, she was a consultant of the Ministry of Economy of Argentina during 2001 and 2002.
Andrea GALLICE Assistant professor at the Department of Economics and Statistics of the University of Torino and research affiliate of Collegio Carlo Alberto. He holds a MSc in Economics from the University College of London and a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich. His areas of interest are industrial organization, auction theory, behavioural economics.
Selim GULESCI Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and IGIER at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics at London School of Economics in 2011. His research interests are in the field of development economics, with a focus on the evaluation of social and economic policies in developing countries. His work includes evaluation of asset transfer and training programs in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania; analysis of the link between education and women's empowerment in Turkey and informal insurance.
Vincenzo SCOPPA PhD in Economics at the University of Siena. Associate Professor of Economic Politics at the University of Calabria, Faculty of Economy. In 2010 he won the competition for becoming Full Professor in Political Economics. Researcher from 2000 to 2004. From 1999 to 2000 he served as Officer at the Presidency of the Council of Ministries in Rome, acting as Expert in economic and financial analysis. He is author of two textbooks, Economics of Contracts and Economics of human resources, used as textbooks in around 20 Italian universities. Author of around 40 articles on international scientific journals on Labour economics, Education economics, Political economics.
Admission requirements, fee, registration
Admission requirements Admission is selective and based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. No formal educational requirements apply, but proficiency in written and spoken English is essential.
Application process Interested participants shall fill-in the application form: www.turinschool.eu/eep/cct/apply/form.php. Admitted participants will be required to finalize their registration through payment of the registration fee. They will receive all payment instructions by e-mail.
Deadlines Registrations close on September 21st 2012. Payment is due within that date.
Cancellation Clause The course will take place as scheduled with a minimum of 10 participants. In case of cancellation of the session due to a lower number of registered participants, already registered applicants will be totally refunded.
Programme fee The programme fee covers tuition, case materials, accommodation (2-night hotel) and a social dinner on Day 1. Payment is due within September 21st 2012. The Fee structure is outlined below. ALL FEES ARE VAT EXEMPTED. Cancellation policies are outlined in the information provided to applicants upon admission.
(1) The discounted rate applies to each additional participants from the same organization. This rate applies only if the organization takes charge of registration costs for their participants (invoice addressed to the organization). (2) Registered participants inviting another person to apply to the course will be refunded 15% of their payment once their friend / colleague has been admitted and has finalized his/her registration. (3)A maximum of 5 PhD candidates will be admitted per edition. No extra discounts apply (e.g. Early Bird registration, more than one participant, ...)
Scholarships TSLR is establishing partnerships with supporting organizations to allocate a limited number of scholarships covering the tuition fee. Please contact our Secretariat for further information.
Course Secretariat
For any information please contact our Secretariat:
Turin School of Local Regulation @ Fondazione per l’Ambiente Via Pomba 23 10123 Torino - Italy Phone: +39 011 5714750 Fax: +39 011 5714751 E-mail:
