IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/iecepo/v18y2021i4d10.1007_s10368-021-00505-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do conditional cash transfers increase schooling among adolescents?

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Draeger

    (Universitaet zu Köln)

Abstract

In several Latin American countries, conditional cash transfer programmes are a proven means of alleviating poverty in the short term and promoting education of children from disadvantaged families in the longer run. While the effectiveness of the Brazilian Bolsa Família for children’s education outcomes up to 15 years of age has been widely documented, its contribution to the promotion of students of secondary school age has not been fully explored in light of the programme’s expansion to 16-17 years olds in 2008. In this paper, I draw on Brazilian National Household Sample Survey data and use a difference-in-differences approach already applied in research in the context of Bolsa Família extension. Whereas these data were previously examined to detect intent-to-treat (ITT) effects due to insufficient information on treatment status, in this study I rely on a classifier method to additionally estimate average treatment effects on the treated who belong to families supposedly receiving Bolsa Família cash transfers. The results suggest that school attendance rates for 16-year-olds are particularly increased in the Brazilian Northeast, although the estimates are not significant when further time periods are taken into account. As comparably poor but non-recipient households have larger and consistently significant gains of school attendance, the effect on adolescent’s education directly caused by the expansion of Bolsa Família remains ambiguous and thus cast doubt on the specific parallel trend assumption. In addition, no long-run ITT effects of the programme’s expansion on school participation among 16 year old teenagers are found.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Draeger, 2021. "Do conditional cash transfers increase schooling among adolescents?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 743-766, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:iecepo:v:18:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10368-021-00505-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10368-021-00505-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10368-021-00505-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10368-021-00505-6?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alain de Janvry & Frederico Finan & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2012. "Local Electoral Incentives and Decentralized Program Performance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(3), pages 672-685, August.
    2. Mikael Lindahl & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Education for Growth: Why and for Whom?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1101-1136, December.
    3. Filmer, Deon & Schady, Norbert, 2011. "Does more cash in conditional cash transfer programs always lead to larger impacts on school attendance?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 150-157, September.
    4. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie & Sunčica Vujić, 2011. "The Crime Reducing Effect of Education," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 463-484, May.
    5. Andrea R. Ferro & Ana Lúcia Kassouf & Deborah Levison, 2010. "The impact of conditional cash transfer programs on household work decisions in Brazil," Research in Labor Economics, in: Child Labor and the Transition between School and Work, pages 193-218, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Reenu, 2008. "Role of Economic Reform in the Growth of Indian Economy," Journal of Commerce and Trade, Society for Advanced Management Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 19-22, April.
    7. Lance Lochner & Enrico Moretti, 2004. "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 155-189, March.
    8. Fernanda Brollo & Katja Maria Kaufmann & Eliana La Ferrara, 2020. "Learning Spillovers in Conditional Welfare Programmes: Evidence from Brazil," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(628), pages 853-879.
    9. Alan de Brauw & Daniel O. Gilligan & John Hoddinott & Shalini Roy, 2015. "Bolsa Família and Household Labor Supply," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(3), pages 423-457.
    10. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    11. Ana Barbosa & Carlos Corseuil, 2014. "Conditional cash transfer and informality in Brazil," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, December.
    12. Leonardo Bursztyn & Lucas C. Coffman, 2012. "The Schooling Decision: Family Preferences, Intergenerational Conflict, and Moral Hazard in the Brazilian Favelas," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(3), pages 359-397.
    13. Pedro H. G. Ferreira. de Souza & Rafael Guerreiro Osorio & Luis Henrique Paiva & Sergei Soares, 2019. "Os efeitos do programa Bolsa Família sobre a pobreza e a desigualdade: Um balanço dos primeiros quinze anos," One Pager Portuguese 429, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    14. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2014. "Mastering ’Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10363.
    15. Glewwe, P. & Muralidharan, K., 2016. "Improving Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    16. Card, David, 1999. "The causal effect of education on earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 30, pages 1801-1863, Elsevier.
    17. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kristinn Hermannsson & Patrizio Lecca, 2016. "Human Capital in Economic Development: From Labour Productivity to Macroeconomic Impact," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(1), pages 24-36, March.
    2. Cabus, Sofie J. & De Witte, Kristof, 2011. "Does school time matter?—On the impact of compulsory education age on school dropout," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1384-1398.
    3. Tony Beatton & Michael P. Kidd & Matteo Sandi, 2020. "School indiscipline and crime," CEP Discussion Papers dp1727, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Paul Verstraten, 2018. "The scope of the external return to higher education," CPB Discussion Paper 381.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Randi Hjalmarsson & Helena Holmlund & Matthew J. Lindquist, 2015. "The Effect of Education on Criminal Convictions and Incarceration: Causal Evidence from Micro‐data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1290-1326, September.
    6. Daniel Aaronson & Daniel G. Sullivan, 2002. "Growth in worker quality," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Feb.
    7. Paul Verstraten, 2018. "The scope of the external return to higher education," CPB Discussion Paper 381, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    8. Murat G. Kirdar & Meltem Dayioglu & Ismet Koç, 2013. "Does Longer Compulsory Education Equalize Educational Attainment? Evidence From A Major Policy Reform," Working Papers 777, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2013.
    9. Bellido, Héctor, 2020. "La transición del sistema educativo al mercado laboral en Europa: Efectos del abandono escolar en la incorporación al trabajo de los jóvenes europeos [The transition from the education system to th," MPRA Paper 103071, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    11. Campaniello, Nadia & Gray, Rowena & Mastrobuoni, Giovanni, 2016. "Returns to education in criminal organizations: Did going to college help Michael Corleone?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 242-258.
    12. Lisa Grazzini, 2016. "The Importance of the Quality of Education: Some Determinants and its Effects on Earning Returns and Economic Growth," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 43-82.
    13. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann, 2008. "The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 607-668, September.
    14. G. Brunello & M. Fort & G. Weber & C. T. Weiss, 2013. "Testing the Internal Validity of Compulsory School Reforms as Instrument for Years of Schooling," Working Papers wp911, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    15. Andrew Leigh, 2008. "Returns To Education In Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 27(3), pages 233-249, September.
    16. Nick Huntington-Klein, 2021. "Human capital versus signaling is empirically unresolvable," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 2499-2531, May.
    17. Strauss, Jack, 2013. "The Economic Gains to Colorado of Amendment 66," MPRA Paper 49928, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Chaitali Sinha, 2014. "Human Capital and Public Policy," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 3(1), pages 79-125, June.
    19. Amaghouss, Jabrane & Ibourk, Aomar, 2019. "Higher Education and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of World Regions Trajectories," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 72(3), pages 321-350.
    20. Kemptner, Daniel & Tolan, Songül, 2018. "The role of time preferences in educational decision making," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 25-39.

    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:kap:iecepo:v:18:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10368-021-00505-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.