Programmatic Ideas Adopted Through Policy Diffusion in the Design of the Human Development Bonus (HDB) in Ecuador

Abstract

Cash transfer programs emerged in the mid-1990s, eventually spreading to Latin America and the Caribbean, and later, throughout the world. The contributions of international organizations have shaped, driven, and diffused these cash transfer programs. The questions guiding this research concern how the Human Development Bonus in Ecuador was designed and how the programmatic ideas of international organizations influence decision and policy makers. The hypothesis posits that international organizations’ programmatic ideas about cash transfer programs, positioned as instruments to combat poverty, are diffused throughout the national context as an instrument of compensation for the most vulnerable families, with policy makers adopting mechanisms of coercion, emulation, and learning when designing the Human Development Bonus. From a neo-institutionalist perspective, public policy networks are analyzed, demonstrating that the origin of the Human Development Bonus is endogenous; it began as an instrument of fiscal policy amid the possible elimination of the gas subsidy, which did not materialize, and it then moved to social policy. International organizations played a relevant role in designing the Human Development Bonus by imposing structural adjustment reforms, establishing the conditions for the delivery of loans, and offering technical assistance.