New research traces the intricate links between policy and politics
Benefit recipients in Brazil who are penalised punish politicians at the polls

INCENTIVES ARE central to welfare systems. In developing countries some “conditional cash-transfer” programmes offer families on low incomes benefits only if the children are sent to school and vaccinated. Payments may be suspended if they do not meet the conditions, but relatively little is known about how recipients respond. A trio of papers written by Fernanda Brollo of the University of Warwick, Katja Kaufmann of Mannheim University and Eliana La Ferrara of Bocconi University, and presented at the annual conference of the Royal Economic Society last month, examine the far-reaching spillovers of enforcing conditionality.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Spilling over”
Finance & economics
May 11th 2019- America ratchets up the pressure in its trade war with China
- So far, Donald Trump’s trade war has not derailed the global economy
- The EU tries to strong-arm Switzerland into a new trade deal
- Months after IL&FS collapsed, India’s markets are on a strong run
- Mobile money comes to Nigeria
- New research traces the intricate links between policy and politics
- When you have options, volatility is your friend
- The state of America’s community banks
- Riding alone in a car is a luxury—an increasingly unaffordable one

From the May 11th 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
America has given China a strangely good tariff deal
For the next 90 days, at least

Trump’s trade deal with Britain will worry allies and rivals alike
Sir Keir Starmer will at least be pleased to have been first

Why Gen X is the real loser generation
Don’t cry for millennials or Gen Z. Save your pity for those in their 50s
Global turmoil has at least one beneficiary: currency traders
The foreign-exchange market has been reinvigorated by recent events
How Saudi Arabia is cranking up the pressure on its OPEC allies
Will oil prices fall much further?
Trump is a threat to Asia’s giant insurers
Not just its exporters