This research paper intends to quantifit targeting performance in terms of the efficiency of the 1 National Plan for Social Emergency Assistance (PANES) implemented in Uruguay between 2005 and 2007 and determine its impact on relevant issues such as school attendance, child labor and the labor market. For this analysis , we used 2006 and 2007 Continual Household Survey (ECH) data.

Our outcomes show that in 2007, 27% of the eligible households in Montevideo and other urban areas were not able to enter the program. In addition, less than 2% of the non-eligible households received program benefits. Even though this allows us to conclude that program targeting was actually not high, targeting indicators show noticeable improvement when compared to indicators for 2006. Additionally, there are no signs of discontinuity around the thresholds set in djerent regions to gain access to the program. This invalidates the regression discontinuity method used to evaluate program impact.

As regards the evaluation, estimates made using the propensity score matching estimator show that PANES has not had significant impact on school attendance or child labor. In addition, adverse labor market effects are observed in terms of worked hours in urban areas other than Montevideo for both men and women. Quantitatively, a reduction in the number of worked hours by individuals who participated in PANES is observed, around 1.4% for men and 8% for women. It is worth mentioning that effects observed on the labor market relate only to worked hours and not to participation in the labor force. As regards informality, a non significant increase is observed. No impacts on the labor supply, labor force participation or informality are observed for Montevideo.