During the summer of 2018, the Tinker Foundation funds enabled Matthew Spearly to interview political, economy, and social assistance experts in Argentina to identify and understand recent social assistance developments, in addition to collecting related quantitative data. Many studies suggest that Latin American countries might be unable to sustain their social commitments, but it is not clear that this is happening. "To what extent has the end of the commodity boom coincided with a retrenchment of social assistance in Latin America and why?" asks Spearly. Existing predictions offer conflicting results because of their heterogeneous scope conditions, differing measures of variables, and unmodeled interactions of economic and political processes. Updated theories and empirical tests are needed to answer the question posed and its corollaries. The resulting relationships formed, theoretical insights generated, and quantitative data collected will assist greatly in explaining how patterns of social assistance have changed-or not-in Latin America since the end of the commodity boom.

 

 

Tinker Field Research Grants are awarded to graduate students to support pre-dissertation research travel to and within Latin America. CLAS affiliates will be invited to attend "Tinker Talk" round table events throughout the year that feature the research progress of our Tinker Fellows. 

 

For more information: Tinker Field Research Grants