Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Adhvaryu, Achyuta; Molina, Teresa; Nyshadham, Anant; Tamayo, Jorge
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of Hawaii System; University of Hawaii Manoa; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/uead067
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1-22
• 关键词: Conditional cash transfers; middle-income countries; Long-term impacts; fetal origins; HEALTH; weather; school; interventions; CONSEQUENCES; ECONOMICS

摘要

Children who face significant disadvantage early in life are often found to be worse off years or even decades later. Can conditional cash transfer programs mitigate the negative consequences and help these children catch up with their peers? We answer this question using data from rural Mexico, where rainfall shocks can have substantial effects on household income. We find that adverse rainfall in a child's year of birth decreases grade attainment, post-secondary enrolment and employment outcomes. But declines were much smaller for children whose families were randomised to receive the conditional cash transfer program, PROGRESA: each additional year of PROGRESA exposure during childhood mitigated almost 20% of the early disadvantage in grade attainment.