| The international and local Nicaraguan media have widely reported on the “coffee crisis” in Latin America and there is substantial evidence that there has been a downturn and that this has been more severe in the coffee-growing regions. Using household panel data from a randomized community-based intervention carried out in both coffee- and noncoffee-growing areas, I examine the role of a conditional cash transfer program, the Red de Protección Social (RPS), during this downturn. While not designed as a traditional safety net program in the sense of reacting or adjusting to crises or shocks, RPS has performed like one, with larger estimated program effects for those who were more severely affected by the downturn. For example, it protected households... |
