IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ven/wpaper/201726.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety-net Program on children's educational aspirations

Author

Listed:
  • Aregawi G. Gebremariam

    (Department of Economics, University Of Venice CÃ Foscari)

  • Elisabetta Lodigiani

    (Elisabetta Lodigiani University of Padua; Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milan)

  • Giacomo Pasini

    (Ca' Foscari University of Venice; NETSPAR, Le Tilburg)

Abstract

Children's educational aspirations are important predictors of educational attainment and of occupational success. However, aspirations can be affected by whether an individual is poor or rich. This paper evaluates the impacts of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), launched by the government of Ethiopia in 2005/06 to support food insecure rural households, on children's educational aspirations. Using longitudinal data from the Young Lives' survey in Ethiopia and applying a differences–in-differences methodology, we find that the program increases educational aspirations of children. In our preferred specification, the immediate effect of the program is to increase by 0.73 years of education aspirations of children. Furthermore, we find that aspirations are affected also in the long run, even if the point estimates are sensible to model specification. The results point to broad and long lasting positive effects of a program designed to relieve chronically poor households from food insecurity.

Suggested Citation

  • Aregawi G. Gebremariam & Elisabetta Lodigiani & Giacomo Pasini, 2017. "The impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety-net Program on children's educational aspirations," Working Papers 2017:26, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    • Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2017:26
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.unive.it/pag/fileadmin/user_upload/dipartimenti/economia/doc/Pubblicazioni_scientifiche/working_papers/2017/WP_DSE_gebremariam_lodigiani_pasini_26_17.pdf
    File Function: First version, anno
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Porter, Catherine & Goyal, Radhika, 2016. "Social protection for all ages? Impacts of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program on child nutrition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 92-99.
    2. Andersson, Camilla & Mekonnen, Alemu & Stage, Jesper, 2011. "Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock and tree holdings of rural households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 119-126, January.
    3. Getinet Haile & Beliyou Haile, 2012. "Child labour and child schooling in rural Ethiopia: nature and trade-off," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 365-385, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Laajaj, Rachid, 2017. "Endogenous time horizon and behavioral poverty trap: Theory and evidence from Mozambique," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 187-208.
    6. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    7. Garance Genicot & Debraj Ray, 2017. "Aspirations and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 489-519, March.
    8. Tanguy Bernard & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Editor's choice Aspirations: An Approach to Measurement with Validation Using Ethiopian Data," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 23(2), pages 189-224.
    9. Dercon, Stefan & Singh, Abhijeet, 2013. "From Nutrition to Aspirations and Self-Efficacy: Gender Bias over Time among Children in Four Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 31-50.
    10. Tanguy Bernard & Stefan Dercon & Kate Orkin & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2015. "Will Video Kill the Radio Star? Assessing the Potential of Targeted Exposure to Role Models through Video," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(suppl_1), pages 226-237.
    11. Stephen Devereux, 2002. "Can Social Safety Nets Reduce Chronic Poverty?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 20(5), pages 657-675, November.
    12. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    13. Johannes Haushofer & Jeremy Shapiro, 2016. "The Short-term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: ExperimentalEvidence from Kenya," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1973-2042.
    14. Tanguy Bernard & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Aspirations: An approach to measurement with validation using ethiopian data," Post-Print hal-03022496, HAL.
    15. Marta Favara, 2017. "Do Dreams Come True? Aspirations and Educational Attainments of Ethiopian Boys and Girls," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(5), pages 561-583.
    16. Daniel Gilligan & John Hoddinott & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2009. "The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme and its Linkages," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(10), pages 1684-1706.
    17. Emma Riley, 2017. "Role models in movies: the impact of Queen of Katwe on students’ educational attainment," CSAE Working Paper Series 2017-13, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    18. Tanguy Bernard & Stefan Dercon & Kate Orkin & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2015. "Behavioral economics: Will video kill the radio star? Assessing the potential of targeted exposure to role models through video," Post-Print hal-03022494, HAL.
    19. Bethelhem Debela & Gerald Shively & Stein Holden, 2015. "Does Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program improve child nutrition?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(6), pages 1273-1289, December.
    20. Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel & Devereux, Stephen, 2010. "Cash transfers and high food prices: Explaining outcomes on Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 274-285, August.
    21. Guush Berhane & Daniel O. Gilligan & John Hoddinott & Neha Kumar & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Can Social Protection Work in Africa? The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-26.
    22. Sarah Baird & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Berk Özler & Michael Woolcock, 2014. "Conditional, unconditional and everything in between: a systematic review of the effects of cash transfer programmes on schooling outcomes," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 1-43, January.
    23. John Cockburn & Jane Kabubo-Mariara (ed.), 2010. "Child Welfare in Developing Countries," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6275-1, December.
    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. Malhi, Fareena Noor, 2020. "Unconditional Cash Transfers: Do They Impact Aspirations of the Poor?," MPRA Paper 102509, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Jules Gazeaud & Victor Stephane, 2023. "Productive Workfare? Evidence from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 265-290, January.
    2. Katrina Kosec & Kamiljon Akramov & Bakhrom Mirkasimov & Jie Song & Hongdi Zhao, 2022. "Aspirations and women's empowerment: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 101-134, January.
    3. 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).
    4. Dalton,Patricio S. & Ruschenpohler,Julius & Zia,Bilal Husnain, 2018. "Determinants and dynamics of business aspirations : evidence from small-scale entrepreneurs in an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8400, The World Bank.
    5. Mekonnen, Daniel & Gerber, Nicolas, 2015. "The Effect of Aspirations on Agricultural Innovations in Rural Ethiopia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211680, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. 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.
    7. Daniel Ayalew Mekonnen & Nicolas Gerber, 2017. "Aspirations and food security in rural Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 371-385, April.
    8. Girmay Berhe Araya, 2020. "Impact of Ethiopia's productive safety net program on manure use by rural households: Evidence from Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(5), pages 725-742, September.
    9. Araya, Girma Behe & Holden , Stein T., 2017. "Is Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program Enhancing Dependency?," CLTS Working Papers 5/17, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 21 Oct 2019.
    10. Tadesse, Getaw & Zewdie, Tadiwos, 2019. "Grants vs. credits for improving the livelihoods of ultra-poor: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 320-329.
    11. 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).
    12. Lubega, Patrick & Nakakawa, Frances & Narciso, Gaia & Newman, Carol & Kaaya, Archileo N. & Kityo, Cissy & Tumuhimbise, Gaston A., 2021. "Body and mind: Experimental evidence from women living with HIV," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    13. Dalton, Patricio & Rüschenpöhler, Julius & Zia, Bilal, 2018. "Aspirations of Small-scale Entrepreneurs : Evidence from Urban Retailers in Indonesia," Other publications TiSEM bc573b53-32a8-497b-a67d-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Ross, Phillip H., 2019. "Occupation aspirations, education investment, and cognitive outcomes: Evidence from Indian adolescents," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    15. 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.
    16. Wuepper, David & Sauer, Johannes, 2016. "Explaining the performance of contract farming in Ghana: The role of self-efficacy and social capital," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 11-27.
    17. González-Jiménez, Víctor, 2022. "Social status and motivated beliefs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    18. Tagel Gebrehiwot & Carolina Castilla, 2018. "Do safety net transfers improve household diets and reduce undernutrition? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Working Papers PMMA 2018-03, PEP-PMMA.
    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. Martini, Christina & Ibañez Diaz, Marcela & Khadjavi, Menusch, 2021. "Community Aspirations and Collective Action," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 309651, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Educational aspirations; PSNP; differences–in-differences; food insecure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ven:wpaper:2017:26. 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: Geraldine Ludbrook (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dsvenit.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.