To condition or not - is that the question? : an analysis of the effectiveness of ex-ante and ex-post conditionality in social cash transfer programs

Social cash transfers have been identified as one interesting option in low-income countries to combat poverty. Whether the cash should come with any conditions attached has been controversially debated by academics and policy-makers. Drawing on uniquely designed experiments, survey and qualitative data, this dissertation critically analyses the appropriateness of conditionality for the low-income country context. Using Zambia as a case study, it discovers that conditionality proves not only to be a politically powerful tool but also to empower, rather than patronize beneficiaries. Conditionality, however, comes at a price: it excludes households from the program, foregoes poverty reduction effects, and overburdens the administration.