Cash Transfers and Child Schooling : Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Conditionality

Akresh, Richard ; de Walque, Damien ; Kazianga, Harounan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT;    ACADEMIC YEAR;    ACCOUNT;    ACHIEVEMENT;    ACHIEVEMENT TESTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6340
RP-ID  :  WPS6340

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors conduct a randomizedexperiment in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact ofalternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on education.The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cashtransfers that were either conditional or unconditional.Families under the conditional schemes were required to havetheir children ages 7-15 enrolled in school and attendingclasses regularly. There were no such requirements under theunconditional programs. The results indicate thatunconditional and conditional cash transfer programs have asimilar impact increasing the enrollment of children who aretraditionally favored by parents for school participation,including boys, older children, and higher ability children.However, the conditional transfers are significantly moreeffective than the unconditional transfers in improving theenrollment of "marginal children" who areinitially less likely to go to school, such as girls,younger children, and lower ability children. Thus,conditionality plays a critical role in benefiting childrenwho are less likely to receive investments from their parents.