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Cash Transfers, Behavioral Changes, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

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  • Karen Macours
  • Norbert Schady
  • Renos Vakis

Abstract

Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. There is a large literature on the effects of these programs on schooling, health and nutrition, but relatively little is known about possible impacts on child development. This paper analyzes the impact of a cash transfer program on cognitive development in early childhood in rural Nicaragua. Identification is based on random assignment. We show that children in households assigned to receive benefits had significantly higher levels of development nine months after the program began. There is no fadeout of program effects two years after the program had ended and transfers were discontinued. We show that the changes in child development we observe are unlikely to be a result of the cash component of the program alone.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank in its series IDB Publications with number 62638.

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Date of creation: Feb 2012
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Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:62638

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Keywords: Social Development :: Poverty; Social Development :: Youth & Children;

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References

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Blog mentions

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  1. 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
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Cited by:
  1. Richard Akresh & Emilie Bagby & Damien de Walque & Harounan Kazianga, 2012. "Child Labor, Schooling, and Child Ability," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 7699, Mathematica Policy Research.
  2. Dubois, Pierre & Rubio-Codina, Marta, 2010. "Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico," IDEI Working Papers 542, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Sep 2011.
  3. Clemens, Michael A. & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2012. "Split decisions : family finance when a policy discontinuity allocates overseas work," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6287, The World Bank.
  4. María Caridad Araujo & Florencia López Bóo, 2010. "Invertir en los primeros años de vida: Una prioridad para el BID y los países de América Latina y el Caribe," IDB Publications 8529, Inter-American Development Bank.
  5. Sarah Baird & Craig McIntosh & Berk �zler, 2011. "Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1709-1753.
  6. Alexander Gelber & Matthew Weinzierl, 2012. "Equalizing Outcomes vs. Equalizing Opportunities: Optimal Taxation when Children's Abilities Depend on Parents' Resources," Harvard Business School Working Papers 13-014, Harvard Business School.
  7. Macours, Karen, 2012. "Volatility, Risk and Household Poverty: Micro-evidence from Randomized Control Trials," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 128293, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
  8. Ravallion, Martin, 2009. "Why don't we see poverty convergence ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4974, The World Bank.
  9. Dubois, Pierre & Rubio-Codina, Marta, 2012. "Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
  10. 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.
  11. Jenny Aker, . "Scaling Up What Works: Experimental Evidence on External Validity in Kenyan Education," Working Papers 321, Center for Global Development.
  12. Charity Moore, 2009. "Nicaragua?s Red de Protección Social: An Exemplary but Short-Lived Conditional Cash Transfer Programme," Country Study 17, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
  13. Persson, U. Martin & Alpizar, Francisco, 2011. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Payments for Environmental Services: A Conceptual Framework for Explaining and Judging Differences in Outcomes," Discussion Papers dp-11-06-efd, Resources For the Future.
  14. 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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