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Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment

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  • Sarah Baird
  • Craig McIntosh
  • Berk �zler

Abstract

This article assesses the role of conditionality in cash transfer programs using a unique experiment targeted at adolescent girls in Malawi. The program featured two distinct interventions: unconditional transfers (UCT arm) and transfers conditional on school attendance (CCT arm). Although there was a modest decline in the dropout rate in the UCT arm in comparison with the control group, it was only 43% as large as the impact in the CCT arm at the end of the 2-year program. The CCT arm also outperformed the UCT arm in tests of English reading comprehension. However, teenage pregnancy and marriage rates were substantially lower in the UCT than the CCT arm, entirely due to the impact of UCTs on these outcomes among girls who dropped out of school. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 126 (2011)
Issue (Month): 4 ()
Pages: 1709-1753

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Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:126:y:2011:i:4:p:1709-1753

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References

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Health effects of non-health programs
    by Berk Ozler in Development Impact on 2012-07-12 03:29:03
  2. CCTs usually increase schooling but few studies have found gains in test scores – what’s behind this disconnect?
    by Jed Friedman in Development Impact on 2012-04-11 13:28:51
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:
  1. Bryan, Gharad & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2012. "Seasonal Migration and Risk Aversion," CEPR Discussion Papers 8739, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Kirdar, Murat G. & Tayfur, Meltem Dayioglu & Koc, Ismet, 2011. "The Effect of Compulsory Schooling Laws on Teenage Marriage and Births in Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 5887, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Fiszbein, Ariel & Ringold, Dena & Srinivasan, Santhosh, 2011. "Cash transfers, children and the crisis : protecting current and future investments," Social Protection Discussion Papers 62984, The World Bank.
  4. Marito Garcia & Charity M. T. Moore, 2012. "The Cash Dividend : The Rise of Cash Transfer Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2246, September.
  5. World Bank, 2012. "Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity," World Bank Other Operational Studies 12648, The World Bank.
  6. Alderman, Harold & Yemtsov, Ruslan, 2013. "How can safety nets contribute to economic growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6437, The World Bank.
  7. Benjamin A. Olken & Junko Onishi & Susan Wong, 2012. "Should Aid Reward Performance? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia," NBER Working Papers 17892, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Chaaban, Jad & Cunningham, Wendy, 2011. "Measuring the economic gain of investing in girls : the girl effect dividend," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5753, The World Bank.
  9. Felfe, Christina & Deuchert. Eva, 2011. "The tempest: Using a natural disaster to evaluate the link between wealth and child development," Economics Working Paper Series 1146, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
  10. Nicola Brandt, 2012. "Reducing Poverty in Chile: Cash Transfers and Better Jobs," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 951, OECD Publishing.
  11. AfDB, 2011. "MDG Report 2011 - Full Report," MDG Report 334, African Development Bank.
  12. Tessa Bold & Mwangi Kimenyi & Germano Mwabu & Alice Ng'ang'a & Justin Sandefur, 2013. "Scaling-up What Works: Experimental Evidence on External Validity in Kenyan Education," CSAE Working Paper Series 2013-04, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
  13. Cho, Yoon Y. & Kalomba, Davie & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq & Orozco, Victor, 2013. "Gender Differences in the Effects of Vocational Training: Constraints on Women and Drop-Out Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 7408, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Armando Barrientos & Jasmina Byrne & Paola Peña & Juan Miguel Villa & UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2013. "Social Transfers and Child Protection," Innocenti Working Papers inwopa691, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.
  15. Akresh, Richard & de Walque, Damien & Kazianga, Harounan, 2013. "Cash transfers and child schooling : evidence from a randomized evaluation of the role of conditionality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6340, The World Bank.

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