When Does Conditionality Increase Support for Redistributive Transfers?

This paper explores the possibility that individual preferences over redistributive transfers vary with ostensibly non-redistributive aspects of these policies. Data from Brazil suggest that CCTs enjoy more support, even among high income survey respondents, than other less redistributive transfers---a finding that is at odds with standard political economy assumption that income determines support for redistribution. Survey-experimental evidence from Brazil shows that "conditionalities" might explain part of this support, but that the conditionality premium is lager when non-beneficiaries see themselves as different from beneficiaries in politically meaningful dimensions. This finding is compatible with cross-national survey data from Latin America shows more generally that where the poor and rich differ more along regional and ethnic lines, there is more resistance among the rich and white, and more demand among the poor for redistribution. Although still tentative, these findings suggest that CCTs may help overcome resistance to redistribution in more heterogenous societies.