Evaluating the Covid-19 redistributive policies in Mexico and Colombia

While there is mounting evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased socioeconomic inequality, there is still a need to understand the exact channels of impact and what role the policy response has played in different contexts. It is also necessary for governments to be clear about the efficiency of the type of policies they have implemented throughout this period, in terms of the redistributive and/or regressive effect both from an inequality and poverty perspective. Indeed, we know that the amount of additional social spending (excluding health) implemented during the pandemic reached almost 3% of GDP in Colombia and only 0,2% in Mexico. However, research has not yet demonstrated whether the redistributive policies introduced by the Mexican and Colombian governments in response to the Covid-19 crisis have had any positive effect on the distribution of economic and social resources in these two countries.

This project is part of the call for research proposals “Advancing the inequality agenda through collaborative research: identifying the priorities for a global Team Europe approach on inequalities”, launched by the Strategic Committee of the Research Facility on Inequalities. It is coordinated by AFD and co-financed by the European Commission, AECID and ENABEL.