Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment

Achyuta  Adhvaryu; Anant  Nyshadham; Theresa  Molina; Jorge  Tamayo

Working Paper | 2018

Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment

by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, Theresa Molina and Jorge Tamayo

Abstract

Can investing in children who faced adverse events in early childhood help them catch up? We answer this question using two orthogonal sources of variation – resource availability at birth (local rainfall) and cash incentives for school enrollment – to identify the interaction between early endowments and investments in children. We find that adverse rainfall in the year of birth decreases grade attainment, post-secondary enrollment, and employment outcomes. But children whose families were randomized to receive conditional cash transfers experienced a much smaller decline: each additional year of program exposure during childhood mitigated more than 20 percent of early disadvantage.

Keywords: children; Welfare or Wellbeing; Education; Investment; Programs;

Language: English

Format: Print

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Citation:

Adhvaryu, Achyuta, Anant Nyshadham, Theresa Molina, and Jorge Tamayo. "Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 24848, July 2018.

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Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment

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