Teenage School Attendance and Cash Transfers: An Impact Evaluation of PANES

Veronica Amarante, Mery Ferrando () and Andrea Vigorito

Economía Journal, 2013, vol. Volume 14 Number 1, issue Fall 2013, 61-102

Abstract: This article analyzes the impact of PANES, a temporary social assistance program carried out in Uruguay between 2005 and 2007, on school attendance and child labour for children aged 14 to 17. We explore three potential explanatory channels: labour market outcomes, household income and awareness of conditionalities. Our research is based on a panel of PANES applicants. The data includes the administrative records of the program and two waves of a follow-up survey. Program effects are identified using regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference estimations. We were not able to identify any effect on school attendance or child labour for children aged 14 to 17 as a whole or by specific sub-groups. At the same time, we did not find any impact on household income or adult labour, which suggests that income substitution is not explaining the lack of results in terms of schooling. Neither could we identify differences in behavioral responses depending on the awareness of conditionalities. It therefore appears that either the design of the transfer scheme was not suitable to promote behavioral changes (lump sum per household; monthly payments to adults; conditionalities not enforced) or the determinants of school attendance for this age group are more complex and require complementary interventions.

Keywords: Cash transfer program; Impact evaluation; School attendance, Child labour, Uruguay. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Working Paper: Teenage school attendance and cash transfers: an impact evaluation of PANES (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000425:010917

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