Baez, Javier E.Camacho, Adriana2012-03-192012-03-192011-06-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/3445Conditional cash transfers are programs under which poor families get a stipend provided they keep their children in school and take them for health checks. Although there is significant evidence showing that they have positive impacts on school participation, little is known about the long-term impacts of the programs on human capital. This paper investigates whether cohorts of children from poor households that benefited up to nine years from Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, attained more school and performed better on academic tests at the end of high school. Identification of program impacts is derived from two different strategies using matching techniques with household surveys, and regression discontinuity design using a census of the poor and administrative records of the program. The authors show that, on average, participant children are 4 to 8 percentage points more likely than nonparticipant children to finish high school, particularly girls and beneficiaries in rural areas. Regarding long-term impact on tests scores, the analysis shows that program recipients who graduate from high school seem to perform at the same level as equally poor non-recipient graduates, even after correcting for possible selection bias when low-performing students enter school in the treatment group. Although the positive impacts on high school graduation may improve the employment and earning prospects of participants, the lack of positive effects on test scores raises the need to further explore policy actions to couple the program's objective of increasing human capital with enhanced learning.CC BY 3.0 IGOACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDRENACADEMIC LEARNINGACADEMIC PERFORMANCEACCESS TO SCHOOLSACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORESACHIEVEMENT TESTSADOLESCENTSADULTSAGE GROUPSASSIGNMENT MECHANISMASSIGNMENT TO TREATMENTASSOCIATE PROFESSORAVERAGE ATTENDANCEAVERAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTAVERAGE SCOREBASIC SERVICESCHILD CARECHILD EDUCATIONCHILD LABORCLASS SIZECLASSROOMCLASSROOM SPACECLASSROOMSCOLLEGE ENTRANCECOMMUNITY EDUCATIONCOMPLETION RATECOMPLETION RATESDEGREESDEMAND FOR EDUCATIONDROPOUT RATESECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHEDUCATED INDIVIDUALSEDUCATION DEGREEEDUCATION OUTCOMESEDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTEDUCATIONAL OUTCOMESEDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCEEDUCATIONAL RESOURCESEDUCATIONAL SERVICESEDUCATIONAL SUPPLYEMPLOYMENTENROLLMENT RATESEVALUATION METHODSEXAMEXPENDITURESFEE WAIVERFINAL GRADESFINAL OUTCOMESGIRLSGRADE REPETITIONGRADUATION RATEGRADUATION RATESHIGH SCHOOLHIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAHIGH SCHOOL GRADUATESHIGHER EDUCATIONHIGHER ENROLLMENTHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN CAPITAL FORMATIONINDEXESINFORMATION SYSTEMSINTERVENTIONSJOB OPPORTUNITIESKNOWLEDGE GAPLABOR FORCELEARNINGLEARNING OUTCOMESLETLITERATUREMATH ACHIEVEMENTMATH TESTMATHEMATICSNET ENROLLMENTNUMBER OF STUDENTSNUTRITIONNUTRITION STATUSOLDER CHILDRENOPEN ACCESSPAPERSPOOR PEOPLEPRIMARY EDUCATIONPRIMARY SCHOOLPRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTSPRIMARY SCHOOLSPRIVATE SCHOOLINGPRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLSPUPIL RATIOSQUALITY OF EDUCATIONQUALITY OF LIFEREADINGREGULAR ATTENDANCEREGULAR SCHOOL ATTENDANCERETURNS TO EDUCATIONRURAL AREASRURAL SCHOOLSSCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMSCHOOL ACHIEVEMENTSCHOOL COMPLETIONSCHOOL CONSTRUCTIONSCHOOL ENROLLMENTSCHOOL FEEDINGSCHOOL GRADUATESSCHOOL PARTICIPATIONSCHOOL QUALITYSCHOOL SUPPLIESSCHOOL SUPPLYSCHOOL VOUCHERSSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSSECONDARY EDUCATIONSECONDARY SCHOOLSTUDENT PERFORMANCESTUDENTS PER TEACHERSUBJECTSSUBSIDIES TO EDUCATIONTEACHERTEACHER-PUPIL RATIOTEACHERSTEACHINGTECHNICAL TRAININGTERTIARY EDUCATIONTEST SCORESUNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATIONURBAN SCHOOLSYOUTHWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-5681