Through its anti-poverty program, Red de Protección Social (RPS), Nicaragua distributes cash transfers to mothers in poor households on the condition that the children attend school and receive their immunizations. Jesse Acevedo hopes to use a unique dataset associated with evaluating this anti-poverty program, hoping to learn whether the program was effective and whether it is politically manipulated.

DIGSSS support helped him do preliminary research on post conflict Nicaragua and make some contacts, while his actual fieldwork there was sponsored by UCLA’s Latin American Institute. "I did more data gathering and meeting local academics, who provided assistance in a country where research is difficult." Relying on the DIGSSS grant again, he conducted data analysis after his return. "There are few studies of Central American politics—and even fewer that are quantitative," Jesse says. "The support I get from UCLA is making such a project possible."

Published in Winter 2011, Graduate Quarterly