The Social Protection Team in the Human Development Network sponsored this seminar

by
Alan de Brauw, IFPRI
John Hoddinott, IFPRI

Chaired by Margaret Grosh

A growing body of evidence suggests that conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs can have strong, positive effects on a range of welfare indicators for poor households in developing countries.  However, there is little evidence about how important each component of these programs is towards achieving these outcomes.  This paper begins to fill this gap by explicitly testing the importance of conditionality on one specific outcome related to human capital formation, school enrollment, using data collected during the evaluation of Mexico’s PROGRESA CCT program.  To assess the importance of conditionality, we exploit the fact that some PROGRESA beneficiaries who received transfers did not receive the forms needed to monitor the attendance of their children at school.  The authors use a variety of techniques, including propensity score matching, to show that the absence of these forms reduced the likelihood that children attended school.  Moreover, the effect of receiving forms is most pronounced when children are transitioning to lower secondary school.  The authors further show that imposed conditions are more important for households with illiterate household heads.  Throughout the paper, the authors provide evidence that suggests the findings are not driven by unobservable characteristics of households or localities. The seminar presented the results of this study.

Presentation (99kb pdf)

Paper (99kb pdf)

Presenters
Alan de Brauw is a Research Fellow in the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC.

John Hoddinott is the Deputy Director, Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC.