Alex Armand of the University College London presented his research titled "Who wears the trousers in the family? Intra-household resource control, subjective expectations and human capital investment" at the NCID. The paper looked at the results of a conditional cash transfer program in the Republic of Macedonia. The aim of the program was to improve secondary school enrolment among children from poor households.

“Although earlier studies showed that targeting payments to mothers affects human capital investment, there is no clear consensus as to the precise mechanism through which households make decisions to allocate consumption” said Alex at the beginning of his presentation. “The change could be because of budget constraints or because of behavioral change” he went on.

The Macedonian program allowed targeting mothers from very diverse environments. In his study, Alex showed that conditional cash transfer programs from the Republic of Macedonia improved secondary school enrollment among children from poor households.

He concluded that conditional cash transfers to mothers meant an increase in secondary school enrolment.