The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning

This paper studies the medium-term impact of early-life welfare transfers on children's learning. It studies children who were exposed to the randomized controlled trial of the Mexico's Food Support Program (the Programa de Apoyo Alimenta...

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Main Authors: Avitabile, Ciro, Cunha, Jesse M., Meilman Cohn, Ricardo
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/346501576597006155/The-Medium-Term-Impacts-of-Cash-and-In-kind-Food-Transfers-on-Learning
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33055
id okr-10986-33055
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-330552022-09-20T00:13:37Z The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning Avitabile, Ciro Cunha, Jesse M. Meilman Cohn, Ricardo CASH TRANSFERS LEARNING OUTCOMES IN-KIND TRANSFERS Programa de Apoyo Alimentario NUTRITION PRIMARY EDUCATION STUDENT PERFORMANCE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES This paper studies the medium-term impact of early-life welfare transfers on children's learning. It studies children who were exposed to the randomized controlled trial of the Mexico's Food Support Program (the Programa de Apoyo Alimentario, PAL), in which households were assigned to receive cash, in-kind food transfers, or nothing (a control). The children are matched with administrative data on primary school standardized tests, which were taken four to 10 years after the experiment began. The findings show that in-kind transfers did not impact test scores, while cash transfers led to a significant and meaningful decrease in test scores. An analysis of the mechanisms driving these results reveals that both transfers led to an increase in child labor, which is likely detrimental to learning. In-kind food transfers, however, induced a greater consumption of several key micronutrients that are vital for brain development, which likely attenuated the negative impacts of child labor on learning. 2019-12-19T17:15:22Z 2019-12-19T17:15:22Z 2019-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/346501576597006155/The-Medium-Term-Impacts-of-Cash-and-In-kind-Food-Transfers-on-Learning http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33055 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9086 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Mexico
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CASH TRANSFERS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
IN-KIND TRANSFERS
Programa de Apoyo Alimentario
NUTRITION
PRIMARY EDUCATION
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
TEST SCORES
spellingShingle CASH TRANSFERS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
IN-KIND TRANSFERS
Programa de Apoyo Alimentario
NUTRITION
PRIMARY EDUCATION
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
TEST SCORES
Avitabile, Ciro
Cunha, Jesse M.
Meilman Cohn, Ricardo
The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Mexico
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9086
description This paper studies the medium-term impact of early-life welfare transfers on children's learning. It studies children who were exposed to the randomized controlled trial of the Mexico's Food Support Program (the Programa de Apoyo Alimentario, PAL), in which households were assigned to receive cash, in-kind food transfers, or nothing (a control). The children are matched with administrative data on primary school standardized tests, which were taken four to 10 years after the experiment began. The findings show that in-kind transfers did not impact test scores, while cash transfers led to a significant and meaningful decrease in test scores. An analysis of the mechanisms driving these results reveals that both transfers led to an increase in child labor, which is likely detrimental to learning. In-kind food transfers, however, induced a greater consumption of several key micronutrients that are vital for brain development, which likely attenuated the negative impacts of child labor on learning.
format Working Paper
author Avitabile, Ciro
Cunha, Jesse M.
Meilman Cohn, Ricardo
author_facet Avitabile, Ciro
Cunha, Jesse M.
Meilman Cohn, Ricardo
author_sort Avitabile, Ciro
title The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
title_short The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
title_full The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
title_fullStr The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
title_full_unstemmed The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
title_sort medium term impacts of cash and in-kind food transfers on learning
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/346501576597006155/The-Medium-Term-Impacts-of-Cash-and-In-kind-Food-Transfers-on-Learning
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33055
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