Working Paper: NBER ID: w19227
Authors: Nagy Benhassine; Florencia Devoto; Esther Duflo; Pascaline Dupas; Victor Pouliquen
Abstract: Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have been shown to increase human capital investments, but their standard features make them expensive. We use a large randomized experiment in Morocco to estimate an alternative government-run program, a "labeled cash transfer" (LCT): a small cash transfer made to fathers of school-aged children in poor rural communities, not conditional on school attendance but explicitly labeled as an education support program. We document large gains in school participation. Adding conditionality and targeting mothers make almost no difference. The program increased parents' belief that education was a worthwhile investment, a likely pathway for the results.
Keywords: cash transfer; education; Morocco; randomized experiment
JEL Codes: H52; I21; I38; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| LCT (F16) | school participation (I24) |
| LCT (F16) | dropout rates (I21) |
| LCT (F16) | re-enrollment rates (I23) |
| LCT (F16) | parents' beliefs about returns to education (I26) |
| LCT (F16) | basic math skills (C12) |
| CCT (C24) | school participation (I24) |
| LCT (F16) | educational outcomes (I26) |