DP11937 Are Conditional Cash Transfers Fulfilling Their Promise? Schooling, Learning, and Earnings After 10 Years

Author(s):	Tania Barham, Karen Macours, John Maluccio
Publication Date:	March 2017
Date Revised:	September 2018
Keyword(s):	CCT, education, labor markets, learning, long-term effects
JEL(s):	I25, I28, I38, O12
Programme Areas:	Development Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=11937

Interventions promoting investment in child human capital are motivated by their potential to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. With this goal, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are the anti-poverty program of choice in many developing countries even though the evidence on their longer term objectives is inconclusive. This paper uses the randomized phase-in of a CCT program in Nicaragua to estimate long-term education, learning, and labor market effects for males 10 years after the start of the program. Gains in schooling and learning coincide with positive labor market returns including higher earnings, and demonstrate important long-term returns to CCTs.