Decomposing the Channels of Influence of Conditional Transfers in a Structural Model of Educational Choice (2002)
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BibTeX
@MISC{Sadoulet02decomposingthe,
author = {Elisabeth Sadoulet and Frederico Finan and Alain De Janvry},
title = {Decomposing the Channels of Influence of Conditional Transfers in a Structural Model of Educational Choice},
year = {2002}
}
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Abstract
Among children from poor households in marginal Mexican rural communities who finish primary school, 25% do not continue in secondary school and 8.8% of those who enter secondary school abandon after failing the first year. The ambitious Program for Education, Health, and Nutrition (Progresa) was introduced to remedy this situation, making cash payments to mothers of 2.5 million poor rural children to send them to school. Randomized treatment allows accurate impact analysis. We estimate a structural model of enrollment decisions to continue and to repeat grades in case of failure. Results show that Progresa increases secondary school enrollment among beneficiaries from 71.9% to 79.2%, eliminating the difference between poor and non-poor. On average, poor children's school achievement increases by 0.3 years over the three year secondary cycle. The program benefits more children from the poorest households, with uneducated parents, and living further away from a school. We show that reducing failure rate of children with uneducated parents and increasing access to or information on job opportunities that offer higher return to education outside the community would also greatly increase enrollment into secondary school.
Keyphrases
structural model educational choice conditional transfer uneducated parent secondary school secondary school enrollment year secondary cycle school achievement increase first year marginal mexican rural community enrollment decision poor household failure rate poor rural child primary school cash payment secondary school abandon accurate impact analysis job opportunity poor child program benefit ambitious program
