
Can large, untargeted conditional cash transfers increase graduation rates? [pdf] - troydavis
https://andrewdustan.com/pdf/motivating_bureaucrats.pdf
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troydavis
> This paper estimates the effects of a massive, minimally targeted
> conditional cash transfer program in Mexico City’s public high schools on
> graduation rates, test scores, and school choice. Using a difference-in-
> differences approach that exploits variation ineligibility between students
> and cohorts within a high school, I find that this program had no
> appreciable effect on high school completion. The results are sufficiently
> precise to rule out policy-relevant effect sizes. Null effects persist for
> subgroups that could be candidates for a targeted program. End-of-high
> school exam scores are apparently unaffected by the program and effects on
> high school choices by eligible students are minimal. There is no evidence
> for heterogeneous effects with respect to implicit or explicit cost of
> attendance, suggesting that liquidity constraints are not a key driver of
> high school dropout in this urban setting. These results highlight the
> challenges of using cash to improve academic outcomes in cities.

This is the program which was analyzed:
[https://www.prepasi.cdmx.gob.mx/](https://www.prepasi.cdmx.gob.mx/)

Its annual report from 2015:
[https://www.prepasi.cdmx.gob.mx/storage/app/uploads/public/5...](https://www.prepasi.cdmx.gob.mx/storage/app/uploads/public/58e/2e0/d19/58e2e0d199e2e116301900.pdf)

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Bostonian
Is the link correct? It goes to a paper "Motivating bureaucrats with non-
monetary incentives when state capacity is weak: Evidence from large-scale
field experiments in Peru∗".

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troydavis
No, it's the wrong URL. Sorry! I can't edit it, but the correct link is
[https://andrewdustan.com/pdf/dustan_prepasi.pdf](https://andrewdustan.com/pdf/dustan_prepasi.pdf)

