Does Cash for School Influence Young Women’s Behavior in the Longer Term? Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

The Punjab Female School Stipend
 Program, a female-targeted conditional cash transfer program
 in Pakistan, was implemented in response to gender gaps in
 education. An early evaluation of the program shows that the
 enrollment of eligible girls in middle school increased in
 the short term by nearly 9 percentage points. This paper
 uses regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference
 analyses to show that five years into the program
 implementation positive impacts do persist. Beneficiary
 adolescent girls are more likely to progress through and
 complete middle school and work less. There is suggestive
 evidence that participating girls delay their marriage and
 have fewer births by the time they are 19 years old. Girls
 who are exposed to the program later, and who are eligible
 for the benefits given in high school, increase their rates
 of matriculating into and completing high school. The
 persistence of impacts can potentially translate into gains
 in future productivity, consumption, inter-generational
 human capital accumulation and desired fertility. Lastly,
 there is no evidence that the program has negative spillover
 effects on educational outcomes of male siblings.