Assessing the Long-term Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Human Capital : Evidence from Colombia

Baez, Javier E. ; Camacho, Adriana

关键词: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT;    ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN;    ACADEMIC LEARNING;    ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE;    ACCESS TO SCHOOLS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5681
RP-ID  :  WPS5681

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Conditional cash transfers are programsunder which poor families get a stipend provided they keeptheir children in school and take them for health checks.Although there is significant evidence showing that theyhave positive impacts on school participation, little isknown about the long-term impacts of the programs on humancapital. This paper investigates whether cohorts of childrenfrom poor households that benefited up to nine years fromFamilias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer program inColombia, attained more school and performed better onacademic tests at the end of high school. Identification ofprogram impacts is derived from two different strategiesusing matching techniques with household surveys, andregression discontinuity design using a census of the poorand administrative records of the program. The authors showthat, on average, participant children are 4 to 8 percentagepoints more likely than nonparticipant children to finishhigh school, particularly girls and beneficiaries in ruralareas. Regarding long-term impact on tests scores, theanalysis shows that program recipients who graduate fromhigh school seem to perform at the same level as equallypoor non-recipient graduates, even after correcting forpossible selection bias when low-performing students enterschool in the treatment group. Although the positive impactson high school graduation may improve the employment andearning prospects of participants, the lack of positiveeffects on test scores raises the need to further explorepolicy actions to couple the program's objective ofincreasing human capital with enhanced learning.