The impact of conditional cash transfer on early childhood development.
“Globally, an estimated of 165 million children under-five years of age, or 26% were recorded as stunted in 2011 ”. Underdevelopment of children usually associated with poor stimulating home environments which affect the children’s growth (Powell et al., 2004). Many development programs have addressed this issue and the popular program is the conditional cash transfer (CCT). Fiszbein et al. (2009; 1) define CCT as the “programs that transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those households make prespecified investments in the human capital of their children”. This paper will analyse the impact of Nicaragua’s CCT program (Atencion a Crisis) on …show more content…
Although they found no treatment effect on the sample as a whole, there is a positive and significant impact of the program on the poorest quartile children in their sample. They also found an improvement on the haemoglobin levels of the poorest families of their treatment group.
Macours et al. (2012) analysed the impact of Atencion a Crisis on early childhood cognitive development. Using randomized evaluation, they found that the program has positive and significant impact on child’s health and development. The positive impact could be attributed to the behavioural changes of the treated households, for an example, “an increase in the expenditure for nutrient-rich foods, provided more early stimulation for their child, and made more use of preventive health care” (ibid; 270).
Supported by the aforementioned studies, this paper argues that early childhood stimulation will generate positive and significant impact on the child’s growth and development.
Nicaragua’s Atencion a …show more content…
(2012). Unlike their study that employed randomization evaluation, the current paper will use difference-in-difference evaluation method. Furthermore, the current study will only focus on the physical health and growth aspect of the childhood development.
The DID models for this study is as follows: 〖zweight〗_it=β_0+β_1 year+β_2 t_i+β_3 ttreat+μ_it 〖zheight〗_it=β_0+β_1 year+β_2 t_i+β_3 ttreat+μ_it
Where:
〖zweight〗_it = the impact of the program on the child’s z-score weight
〖zheight〗_it = the impact of the program on the child’s z-score height year = accounts for time trend t = treatment variable ttreat = DD (double difference) estimate (or the impact estimate) μ_it = error term
Physical health and growth will be as suggested by Macours et al. (2012) to estimate the impact of the program on the child’s physical health and growth. Table 1 of the appendix shows the details regarding the variables (maximum, minimum, average values of each variables). Moreover, this paper will also use other covariates that could influence the outcome variables (see Table 2 for the variables’
“Globally, an estimated of 165 million children under-five years of age, or 26% were recorded as stunted in 2011 ”. Underdevelopment of children usually associated with poor stimulating home environments which affect the children’s growth (Powell et al., 2004). Many development programs have addressed this issue and the popular program is the conditional cash transfer (CCT). Fiszbein et al. (2009; 1) define CCT as the “programs that transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those households make prespecified investments in the human capital of their children”. This paper will analyse the impact of Nicaragua’s CCT program (Atencion a Crisis) on …show more content…
Although they found no treatment effect on the sample as a whole, there is a positive and significant impact of the program on the poorest quartile children in their sample. They also found an improvement on the haemoglobin levels of the poorest families of their treatment group.
Macours et al. (2012) analysed the impact of Atencion a Crisis on early childhood cognitive development. Using randomized evaluation, they found that the program has positive and significant impact on child’s health and development. The positive impact could be attributed to the behavioural changes of the treated households, for an example, “an increase in the expenditure for nutrient-rich foods, provided more early stimulation for their child, and made more use of preventive health care” (ibid; 270).
Supported by the aforementioned studies, this paper argues that early childhood stimulation will generate positive and significant impact on the child’s growth and development.
Nicaragua’s Atencion a …show more content…
(2012). Unlike their study that employed randomization evaluation, the current paper will use difference-in-difference evaluation method. Furthermore, the current study will only focus on the physical health and growth aspect of the childhood development.
The DID models for this study is as follows: 〖zweight〗_it=β_0+β_1 year+β_2 t_i+β_3 ttreat+μ_it 〖zheight〗_it=β_0+β_1 year+β_2 t_i+β_3 ttreat+μ_it
Where:
〖zweight〗_it = the impact of the program on the child’s z-score weight
〖zheight〗_it = the impact of the program on the child’s z-score height year = accounts for time trend t = treatment variable ttreat = DD (double difference) estimate (or the impact estimate) μ_it = error term
Physical health and growth will be as suggested by Macours et al. (2012) to estimate the impact of the program on the child’s physical health and growth. Table 1 of the appendix shows the details regarding the variables (maximum, minimum, average values of each variables). Moreover, this paper will also use other covariates that could influence the outcome variables (see Table 2 for the variables’