Helping Children Catch Up

Early Life Shocks and the PROGRESA Experiment

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9704058
AutoresAchyuta Adhvaryu (University of California San Diego, NBER, J-PAL, BREAD, Good Business Lab , USA), Teresa Molina (0000-0003-3829-0042, University of Hawaii at Manoa & IZA , USA), Anant Nyshadham (0000-0001-9165-5528, University of Michigan , NBER, J-PAL, BREAD, Good Business Lab , USA), Jorge Tamayo (0000-0002-8410-264X, Harvard Business School)
Año2023
Volumen134
Número657
Páginas1-22
Fecha de publicación2023-12-07
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ej/uead067
OpenAlexW3121581215
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas42

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

Cash · Cash transfers · Conditional cash transfer · Demographic economics · Developmental psychology · Disadvantage · Early childhood · Economic growth · Economics · Incentive · Political science · Poverty · Resource (disambiguation · Sociology · Agricultural risk and resilience · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Demography · Finance · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology