IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/113587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Educational Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers

Author

Listed:
  • Chong, Zhi Zheng
  • Lau, Siew Yee

Abstract

In this review of the educational impact of unconditional cash transfer programmes (UCTs), we systematically search the impact evaluation literature and find 38 papers that evaluate 22 programmes in 18 countries. We quantitatively synthesise the reported effect sizes from these papers using a random-effects meta-analysis model and find a statistically significant positive impact on both enrolment and attendance, suggesting that UCTs are an effective social intervention for policymakers aiming to improve educational attainment. In line with previous research syntheses of cash transfer programmes, we also find significant heterogeneity in effect sizes across studies, which we attempt to explain in a meta-regression with two programme design features and two country-specific characteristics. The results suggest that transfer size and whether the programme is a pilot are irrelevant to UCT impact. We also find no moderating effects of income per capita and the proportion of people living in poverty in the economy, lending no support to a recently developed theoretical framework for UCTs. The findings and limitations of the systematic review and meta-analysis yield three recommendations for future UCT evaluations.

Suggested Citation

  • Chong, Zhi Zheng & Lau, Siew Yee, 2023. "A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Educational Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers," MPRA Paper 113587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:113587
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/113587/1/META%20ANALYSIS.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/120837/1/MPRA_paper_120837.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/121778/1/MPRA_paper_121778.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuel Skoufias & Susan Wendy Parker, 2001. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Their Impact on Child Work and Schooling: Evidence from the PROGRESA Program in Mexico," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2001), pages 45-96, August.
    2. Ponczek, Vladimir, 2011. "Income and bargaining effects on education and health in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 242-253, March.
    3. Kabeer, Naila & Waddington, Hugh, 2015. "Economic impacts of conditional cash transfer programmes: a systematic review and meta-analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63905, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Filmer, Deon & Schady, Norbert, 2011. "Does more cash in conditional cash transfer programs always lead to larger impacts on school attendance?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 150-157, September.
    5. Jean-Marie Baland & James A. Robinson, 2000. "Is Child Labor Inefficient?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 663-679, August.
    6. Sudhanshu Handa & Luisa Natali & David Seidenfeld & Gelson Tembo, 2016. "The impact of Zambia’s unconditional child grant on schooling and work: results from a large-scale social experiment," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 346-367, July.
    7. Mostert, Cyprian Mcwayizeni & Vall Castello, Judit, 2020. "Long run educational and spillover effects of unconditional cash transfers: Evidence from South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    8. Marisa Coetzee, 2013. "Finding the Benefits: Estimating the Impact of The South African Child Support Grant," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(3), pages 427-450, September.
    9. Susan W Parker & Tom Vogl, 2023. "Do Conditional Cash Transfers Improve Economic Outcomes in the Next Generation? Evidence from Mexico," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(655), pages 2775-2806.
    10. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    11. Zixuan He & Xiangming Fang & Nathan Rose & Xiaodong Zheng & Scott Rozelle, 2021. "Rural minimum living standard guarantee (rural Dibao) program boosts children's education outcomes in rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 54-77, January.
    12. Rodrik, Dani, 2008. "The New Development Economics: We Shall Experiment, but How Shall We Learn?," Working Paper Series rwp08-055, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    13. Bergolo, Marcelo & Galván, Estefanía, 2018. "Intra-household Behavioral Responses to Cash Transfer Programs. Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 100-118.
    14. Manley, James & Gitter, Seth & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2013. "How Effective are Cash Transfers at Improving Nutritional Status?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 133-155.
    15. Kilburn, Kelly & Handa, Sudhanshu & Angeles, Gustavo & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton, 2017. "Short-term impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program on child schooling: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-80.
    16. Richard Akresh & Damien de Walque & Harounan Kazianga, 2016. "Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Household Welfare Impacts of Conditional and Unconditional Cash Transfers Given to Mothers or Fathers," Economics Working Paper Series 1611, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.
    17. Fabio Veras Soares & Rafael Perez Ribas & Guilherme Issamu Hirata, 2010. "Impact evaluation of a rural conditional cash transfer programme on outcomes beyond health and education," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 138-157.
    18. Marie Gaarder & Amanda Glassman & Jessica Todd, 2010. "Conditional cash transfers and health: unpacking the causal chain," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 6-50.
    19. Gustavo Canavire‐Bacarreza & Alberto Chong & Fernando Ríos‐Avila & Mónica Yáñez‐Pagans, 2020. "Will elders provide for their grandchildren? Unconditional cash transfers and educational expenditures in Bolivia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 424-447, May.
    20. Naila Kabeer & Hugh Waddington, 2015. "Economic impacts of conditional cash transfer programmes: a systematic review and meta-analysis," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 290-303, September.
    21. Irineu Evangelista de Carvalho Filho, 2012. "Household Income as a Determinant of Child Labor and School Enrollment in Brazil: Evidence from a Social Security Reform," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(2), pages 399-435.
    22. Johannes Haushofer & Jeremy Shapiro, 2016. "The Short-term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: ExperimentalEvidence from Kenya," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1973-2042.
    23. World Bank, 2015. "The State of Social Safety Nets 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22101.
    24. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Iqbal, Nasir & Nawaz, Saima & Yew, Siew Ling, 2021. "Unconditional cash transfers, child labour and education: theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 437-457.
    25. Alessandro Liberati & Douglas G Altman & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Cynthia Mulrow & Peter C Gøtzsche & John P A Ioannidis & Mike Clarke & P J Devereaux & Jos Kleijnen & David Moher, 2009. "The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-28, July.
    26. Katia Covarrubias & Benjamin Davis & Paul Winters, 2012. "From protection to production: productive impacts of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer scheme," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 50-77, March.
    27. Barrera-Osorio, Felipe & Bertrand, Marianne & L. Linden, Leigh & Perez-Calle, Francisco, 2008. "Conditional cash transfers in education : design features, peer and sibling effects evidence from a randomized experiment in Colombia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4580, The World Bank.
    28. Zixuan He & Xiangming Fang & Nathan Rose & Xiaodong Zheng & Scott Rozelle, 2021. "Rural minimum living standard guarantee (rural Dibao) program boosts children's education outcomes in rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 54-77, January.
    29. Nijkamp, Peter & Poot, Jacques, 2004. "Meta-analysis of the effect of fiscal policies on long-run growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 91-124, March.
    30. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Petra E. Todd, 2006. "Assessing the Impact of a School Subsidy Program in Mexico: Using a Social Experiment to Validate a Dynamic Behavioral Model of Child Schooling and Fertility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1384-1417, December.
    32. Sarah Baird & Craig McIntosh & Berk Özler, 2011. "Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1709-1753.
    33. World Bank, 2018. "The State of Social Safety Nets 2018," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 29115.
    34. Yoram Ben-Porath, 1967. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 352-352.
    35. Sarah Baird & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Berk Özler & Michael Woolcock, 2014. "Conditional, unconditional and everything in between: a systematic review of the effects of cash transfer programmes on schooling outcomes," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 1-43, January.
    36. Sandra García & Juan Saavedra, 2017. "Educational Impacts and Cost-Effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta-Analysis," NBER Working Papers 23594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Zhao & Bauchet, Jonathan & Steele, Diana & Godoy, Ricardo & Radel, Claudia & Zanotti, Laura, 2017. "Comparison of Direct Transfers for Human Capital Development and Environmental Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 498-517.
    2. Gaurav Datt & Leah Uhe, 2014. "A little help may be no help at all: child labor and scholarships in Nepal," Monash Economics Working Papers 50-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. Armando Barrientos & Daniele Malerba, 2020. "Social assistance and inclusive growth," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(3), pages 33-53, July.
    4. Bauchet, Jonathan & Undurraga, Eduardo A. & Reyes-García, Victoria & Behrman, Jere R. & Godoy, Ricardo A., 2018. "Conditional cash transfers for primary education: Which children are left out?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Francesco Burchi & Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio d'Agostino, 2018. "Addressing Food Insecurity in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Role of Cash Transfers," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 564-589, December.
    6. Xiaodong Zheng & Shuangyue Shangguan & Zheng Shen & Hualei Yang, 2023. "Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 502-521, June.
    7. Dagim Dawit Gonsamo & Herman Hay Ming Lo & Ko Ling Chan, 2021. "The Role of Stomach Infrastructures on Children’s Work and Child Labour in Africa: Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-26, August.
    8. Baird, Sarah & McIntosh, Craig & Özler, Berk, 2019. "When the money runs out: Do cash transfers have sustained effects on human capital accumulation?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 169-185.
    9. Bhanot, Syon P. & Han, Jiyoung & Jang, Chaning, 2018. "Workfare, wellbeing and consumption: Evidence from a field experiment with Kenya’s urban poor," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 372-388.
    10. Etienne Lwamba & Shannon Shisler & Will Ridlehoover & Meital Kupfer & Nkululeko Tshabalala & Promise Nduku & Laurenz Langer & Sean Grant & Ada Sonnenfeld & Daniela Anda & John Eyers & Birte Snilstveit, 2022. "Strengthening women's empowerment and gender equality in fragile contexts towards peaceful and inclusive societies: A systematic review and meta‐analysis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), March.
    11. Jacobus de Hoop & Furio C. Rosati, 2014. "Cash Transfers and Child Labor," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 202-234.
    12. Borga, Liyousew G. & D’Ambrosio, Conchita, 2021. "Social protection and multidimensional poverty: Lessons from Ethiopia, India and Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    13. Sessou, Eric & Henning, Christian H. C. A., 2019. "Cash transfers and school enrolment," Working Papers of Agricultural Policy WP2019-02, University of Kiel, Department of Agricultural Economics, Chair of Agricultural Policy.
    14. Sessou, Fidele Eric & Hidrobo, Melissa & Roy, Shalini & Huybregts, Lieven, 2024. "Educational impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program in Mali," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Del Rey, Elena & Estevan, Fernanda, 2013. "Conditional cash transfers and education quality in the presence of credit constraints," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 76-84.
    16. Owusu-Addo, Ebenezer & Renzaho, Andre M.N. & Smith, Ben J., 2018. "Evaluation of cash transfer programs in sub-Saharan Africa: A methodological review," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 47-56.
    17. Verónica Amarante & Martín Brun, 2018. "Cash Transfers in Latin America: Effects on Poverty and Redistribution," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2018), pages 1-31, November.
    18. Edmonds, Eric V., 2008. "Child Labor," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 57, pages 3607-3709, Elsevier.
    19. Jules Gazeaud & Claire Ricard, 2021. "Conditional cash transfers and the learning crisis: evidence from Tayssir scale-up in Morocco," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2102, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    20. Molina Millán, Teresa & Macours, Karen & Maluccio, John A. & Tejerina, Luis, 2020. "Experimental long-term effects of early-childhood and school-age exposure to a conditional cash transfer program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cash transfer programmes; unconditional cash transfers; education; impact evaluation; systematic review; meta-analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:113587. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.