IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea17/258087.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Opportunities for Higher Education: The Ten-Year Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Upper-Secondary and Tertiary Enrollments

Author

Listed:
  • Whetten, Justin S.
  • Villa, Kira M.
  • Fontenla, Matias

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of the conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on rural enrollment/completion in higher education, ten years after the initiation of the program in Mexico. We use data from the International Food Policy Research Institute and employ a Regression Discontinuity approach. We find that Oportunidades eligible households had higher 2007 technical school (14–18 year olds) and college (39+) enrollment/completion relative to comparable non-eligible households. However, the program benefits are heterogeneous depending on school access. Accounting for access to schools, we find that the program also had positive effects for school enrollment/completion for upper secondary (14–18) and college (19–28, 29–38). Further, we find positive tertiary education benefits for individuals in treated households who were too old to qualify for benefits directly, indicating either positive externalities or complementarities for individuals residing in eligible households. Possible mechanisms are relaxing budget constraints, and changes in educational aspirations.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Whetten, Justin S. & Villa, Kira M. & Fontenla, Matias, 2017. "Opportunities for Higher Education: The Ten-Year Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Upper-Secondary and Tertiary Enrollments," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258087, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea17:258087
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.258087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/258087/files/Abstracts_17_06_27_11_43_31_27__172_16_20_110_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.258087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra García & Arturo Harker & Jorge Cuartas, 2016. "Building Dreams: the Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Educational Aspirations in Colombia," Documentos de trabajo 17665, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    2. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    3. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    4. Jere R. Behrman & Susan W. Parker & Petra E. Todd, 2005. "Long-Term Impacts of the Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Rural Youth in Mexico," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 122, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Lindeboom, Maarten & Llena-Nozal, Ana & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2009. "Parental education and child health: Evidence from a schooling reform," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 109-131, January.
    6. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2014. "Changing Households' Investment Behaviour through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a Randomised Transfer Programme," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 607-633, May.
    7. Justine Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2015. "The Effects of Earnings Disclosure on College Enrollment Decisions," Working Papers 2015-1, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    8. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    9. Jennifer Alix-Garcia & Craig McIntosh & Katharine R. E. Sims & Jarrod R. Welch, 2013. "The Ecological Footprint of Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from Mexico's Oportunidades Program," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 417-435, May.
    10. Manuela Angelucci & Orazio Attanasio, 2009. "Oportunidades: Program Effect on Consumption, Low Participation, and Methodological Issues," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 479-506, April.
    11. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2003. "An Evaluation of the Performance of Regression Discontinuity Design on PROGRESA," IZA Discussion Papers 827, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Dercon, Stefan & Orkin, Kate & Bernard, Tanguy & Taffesse, Alemayehu, 2014. "The Future in Mind: Aspirations and Forward-Looking Behaviour in Rural Ethiopia," CEPR Discussion Papers 10224, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Chiapa, Carlos & Garrido, José Luis & Prina, Silvia, 2012. "The effect of social programs and exposure to professionals on the educational aspirations of the poor," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 778-798.
    14. Jere R. Behrman & Susan W. Parker & Petra E. Todd, 2009. "Schooling Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers on Young Children: Evidence from Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 439-477, April.
    15. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2014. "Changing Households' Investment Behaviour through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a Randomised Transfer Programme," Post-Print halshs-01313720, HAL.
    16. Hector Lamadrid-Figueroa & Gustavo Angeles & Thomas Mroz & Jose Urquieta-Salomon & Bernardo Hernandez-Prado & Aurelio Cruz-Valdez & Martha Tellez-Rojo, 2010. "Heterogeneous impact of the social programme Oportunidades on use of contraceptive methods by young adult women living in rural areas," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 74-86.
    17. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Bottan, Nicolas L. & Ham, Andrés, 2019. "Information policies and higher education choices experimental evidence from Colombia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Robert Jensen, 2010. "The (Perceived) Returns to Education and the Demand for Schooling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(2), pages 515-548.
    19. Jere R. Behrman & Susan W. Parker & Petra E. Todd, 2011. "Do Conditional Cash Transfers for Schooling Generate Lasting Benefits?: A Five-Year Followup of PROGRESA/Oportunidades," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(1), pages 93-122.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ikenna Samuel Umezurike & Ibraheem Salisu Adam, 2020. "The Latin American and Nigerian Conditional Cash Transfer Experience: A Comparative Analysis," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(3), pages 2037-2037, December.
    2. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr. & Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel, 2021. "Religiosity and parental educational aspirations for children in Kenya," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sandra García & Arturo Harker & Jorge Cuartas, 2016. "Building Dreams: the Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Educational Aspirations in Colombia," Documentos de trabajo 17665, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    2. Pieter Serneels & Stefan Dercon, 2021. "Aspirations, Poverty, and Education. Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 163-183, January.
    3. González-Jiménez, Víctor, 2022. "Social status and motivated beliefs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    4. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Bottan, Nicolas L. & Ham, Andrés, 2019. "Information policies and higher education choices experimental evidence from Colombia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. García, Sandra & Harker, Arturo & Cuartas, Jorge, 2019. "Building dreams: The short-term impacts of a conditional cash transfer program on aspirations for higher education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 48-57.
    6. Janzen, Sarah A. & Magnan, Nicholas & Sharma, Sudhindra & Thompson, William M., 2017. "Aspirations failure and formation in rural Nepal," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-25.
    7. Garcia, Adriana & Lensink, Robert & Voors, Maarten, 2020. "Does microcredit increase aspirational hope? Evidence from a group lending scheme in Sierra Leone," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    8. Ross, Phillip H. & Glewwe, Paul & Prudencio, Daniel & Wydick, Bruce, 2021. "Developing educational and vocational aspirations through international child sponsorship: Evidence from Kenya, Indonesia, and Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    9. Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul J. & Undurraga, Raimundo, 2021. "Aspiration adaptation in resource-constrained environments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    10. Anandi Mani & Emma Riley, 2019. "Social networks, role models, peer effects, and aspirations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Ivonne Perazzo & Gonzalo Salas, 2019. "Are not any silver in the cloud? Subjective well-being among deprived young people," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 19-09, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    12. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2017. "Sustaining Impacts When Transfers End: Women Leaders, Aspirations, and Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 325-355, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Sung Soo Lim & Jongwook Lee, 2022. "Aspirations, Human Capital Investment, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty in Indonesia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 377-412, July.
    14. Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Ivone Perazzo & Gonzalo Salas, 2021. "Are Not Any Silver Linings in the Cloud? Subjective Well-being Among Deprived Young People," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 491-516, February.
    15. Malhi, Fareena Noor, 2020. "Unconditional Cash Transfers: Do They Impact Aspirations of the Poor?," MPRA Paper 102509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr. & Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel, 2021. "Religiosity and parental educational aspirations for children in Kenya," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    17. La Ferrara, Eliana & Carlana, Michela & Pinotti, Paolo, 2017. "Goals and Gaps: Educational Careers of Immigrant Children," CEPR Discussion Papers 12538, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Kosec, Katrina & Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung, 2017. "Aspirations and the Role of Social Protection: Evidence from a Natural Disaster in Rural Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 49-66.
    19. Fruttero,Anna & Muller,Noel & Calvo-Gonzalez,Oscar, 2021. "The Power and Roots of Aspirations : A Survey of the Empirical Evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9729, The World Bank.
    20. Carol Graham & Julia R. Pozuelo, 2023. "Do high aspirations lead to better outcomes? Evidence from a longitudinal survey of adolescents in Peru," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1099-1137, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea17:258087. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.