81500 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database The Impact of Cash Transfers on School Enrollment: Evidence from Ecuador Author(s) Hessel Oosterbeek, Juan Ponce, Norbert Schady Contact nschady@worldbank.org Country Ecuador Organizing Theme Education and Skills Status The program was launched in 2003 and is ongoing. The analysis is complete Intervention Category Cash Transfer Sector Social Protection This paper presents evidence about the impact on school enrollment of a program in Ecuador that gives cash transfers to the 40 percent poorest families. The evaluation design consists of a randomized experiment for families around the first quintile of the poverty index and of a regression discontinuity design for families around the second quintile of this index, which is the program’s eligibility threshold. This allows us to compare results Abstract from two different credible identification methods, and to investigate whether the impact varies with families’ poverty level. Around the first quintile of the poverty index the impact is positive while it is equal to zero around the second quintile. This suggests that for the poorest families the program lifts a credit constraint while this is not the case for families close to the eligibility threshold. Gender Connection Gender Informed Analysis Gender Outcomes The impact of cash transfers to women on child school enrollment IE Design Randomized Control Trial, Regression Discontinuity In 2003, the government of Ecuador launched a new unconditional cash transfer program—the Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH)—targeted to poor families with children (so means-tested). The transfer is small—only $15 per month per family—but it Intervention represents a non-trivial 10 percent increase in family expenditure for the average eligible family. Transfers are distributed through the banking system, and are given directly to mothers rather than fathers. Intervention Period 2003-Present The sampling scheme selected only households who had at least one child aged 6 to 15. The sample for the experiment consists of households with a poverty index between the 13 and 28th percentile. One half of these households were randomly selected to the treatment Sample population group and one half was selected as the control group. Another survey was taken of families with a poverty index between the 33rd and 47th percentile. There are 3004 children in 1309 families in the experiment and 2384 children in 1221 households in the RDD study. For the RCT component, families around the first quintile of the poverty index were Comparison conditions randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. For the RDD component, data was collected from families around the second quintile of the poverty index, which was the Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database program's threshold. Unit of analysis Child Level Evaluation Period June 2003-March 2005 There are heterogeneous effects of the program. School enrollment of children in families Results around the first quintile increases by about 10 percentage points, while school enrollment of children around the second quintile is unaffected. In reality, not all families that received the transfer were eligible and vice versa. This non- Primary study limitations compliance was due to administrative problems. Funding Source Oosterbeek, H., Ponce, J., & Schady, N. (2008). The impact of cash transfers on school Reference(s) enrollment: Evidence from Ecuador. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series, Vol. Link to Studies http://elibrary.worldbank.org/docserver/download/4645.pdf?expires=1372807141&id= id&accname=guest&checksum=BF98AC427C36ECD680B32D54F7C0E2B3 Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2