The Emergence of Socio-Municipal Currencies: An Institutional Change Perspective in Cash Transfer Policies

Abstract

Cash transfer policies (CTPs) have become an important instrument for poverty alleviation and combating the effects of crises. Among many recent initiatives, community currencies are promising tools to operationalize these programs by municipalities. This paper investigates if there was an institutional change in cash transfer public policies with the adoption of a social currency issued by the municipality of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a recent phenomenon that we call “socio-municipal currency”. We drew on process tracing methodology combined with a theoretical lens of the theory of gradual institutional change. Our analysis indicates a gradual institutional change in CTPs. This change occurred thought the learning mechanism with the municipality acting on lessons learned from a neighboring city and prior social currencies experiences.