Dalila Bernardino, Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence) visited NCID to give a seminar entitled "The Effect of a Conditional Cash Transfer on Child Marriage: Evidence from Mexico." In her paper, she uses Mexican data to evaluate the effect of a conditional cash transfer program on child marriage. Since the late 90s, the program consisted of a transfer to poor mothers, provided their children attended school regularly.

The program led to increases in child marriage. Bernardino explained, "This might seem a bit puzzling because the program also led to increases in education, and we know that there is this kind of negative association between education and marriage decisions, so I try to understand why the program is leading to this increase. What I find is that there is an income effect of the program on marriage decisions".

Dalila explained that the population she studies is poor girls in Mexico, so when they receive more income, they are more likely to marry. Income transfer leads them to marry. "The overall effect of the program can actually be explained through this income effect."