The impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs on educational outcomes beyond school attendance: the case of the AUH in Argentina

Abstract

In this paper we estimate the impact on educational outcomes beyond school attendance of the Universal Child Allowance (AUH), a massive conditional cash transfer program targeted at young children of unemployed and informal workers launched in Argentina in late 2009. Evidence from previous works suggests that the AUH has had a significant positive impact on attendance rates, but concentrated on boys in upper-secondary school. In this paper, we study the effects on other educational outcomes: intra-year dropout rates and primary school completion rates. The analysis highlights heterogeneous effects across age groups and gender. In particular, the AUH may be held responsible for increasing intra-year continuity rates of eligible girls aged 12 to 14 (almost 4 p.p.) and 15 to 17 (7 p.p.) while no effects were found for children aged 6 to 11. The program seems to have also increased the probability of graduating from primary school of over-age eligible children (1.4 p.p. for boys aged 12 to 14, almost 3 p.p. for girls in that age range and 2 p.p. for boys in the 15-17 age group).