Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Baird, Sarah; McIntosh, Craig; Oezler, Berk
• 署名单位: George Washington University; University of California System; University of California San Diego; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjr032
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 1709-1753
• 关键词: transfer programs; teenage childbearing; child labor; school; education; marriage; impacts; AGE; CONSEQUENCES; fertility

摘要

This article assesses the role of conditionality in cash transfer programs using a unique experiment targeted at adolescent girls in Malawi. The program featured two distinct interventions: unconditional transfers (UCT arm) and transfers conditional on school attendance (CCT arm). Although there was a modest decline in the dropout rate in the UCT arm in comparison with the control group, it was only 43% as large as the impact in the CCT arm at the end of the 2-year program. The CCT arm also outperformed the UCT arm in tests of English reading comprehension. However, teenage pregnancy and marriage rates were substantially lower in the UCT than the CCT arm, entirely due to the impact of UCTs on these outcomes among girls who dropped out of school.