81220 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Conditional Cash Transfers and Female Schooling: The Impact of the Female School Stipend Program on Public School Enrollments in Punjab, Pakistan Author(s) Nazmul Chaudhury, Dilip Parajuli Contact nchaudhury@worldbank.org Country Pakistan Organizing Theme Education and Skills Status The project is ongoing but the analysis is complete Intervention Category Cash Transfer Sector Social Protection Instead of mean-tested conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, some countries have implemented gender-targeted CCTs to explicitly address intra-household disparities in human capital investments. This study focuses on addressing the direct impact of a female school stipend program in Punjab, Pakistan: Did the intervention increase female enrollment in public schools? To address this question, the authors draw on data from the provincial school censuses of 2003 and 2005. They estimate the net growth in female enrollments in grades 6-8 in stipend eligible schools. Impact evaluation analysis, including difference-and-difference (DD), triple differencing (DDD), and regression-discontinuity Abstract design (RDD) indicate a modest but statistically significant impact of the intervention. The preferred estimator derived from a combination of DDD and RDD empirical strategies suggests that the average program impact between 2003 and 2005 was an increase of six female students per school in terms of absolute change and an increase of 9 percent in female enrollment in terms of relative change. A triangulation effort is also undertaken using two rounds of a nationally representative household survey before and after the intervention. Even though the surveys are not representative at the sub provincial level, the results corroborate evidence of the impact using school census data. Gender Connection Gender Focused Intervention Gender Outcomes Female school enrollment IE Design Difference in Difference, Regression Discontinuity The Punjab Education Sector Reforms Program has three pillars: 1. Public finance reforms that realign expenditures at the provincial and district level toward education and other pro-poor expenditures 2. devolution and public sector management reforms 3. education sector reforms to improve quality, access and governance of the education system. The Intervention FSSS component was implemented in 2004 in 15 of Punjab's 34 districts. Under the program a girl receives a stipend conditional on enrollment in grade 6-8 in a government girl's school, in a target district and maintaining attendance of 80%. Eligible students receive about $3 a month. Intervention Period 2004-Present Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database The program was implemented in the 15 of Punjab's 34 districts with lowest levels of literacy. The study employs school-level census data. The study focuses on enrollment trends of students grade 5-9 in 2003-2005. In 2003 there were 220,385 (285,914) female Sample population (male) 5th graders in the control group and 102,016 (195,121) in the stipend group. In 2005 there were 252,268 (307,613) female (male) students in the control group and 125,047 (215,066) in the stipend group. Enrollment rates for schools in provinces that have the program are compared with Comparison conditions enrollment rates for schools in provinces without the program. Unit of analysis School Level Evaluation Period 2003-2005 The Difference in Difference approach yields estimates of an impact of 6 additional Results students per school with the triple difference estimates yield an impact of 6 students per school which corresponds to an 9% increase in female enrollment. The data on private schooling is much less complete than public schooling. Some villages in Pakistan do not have a public school thus are excluded from the study. Since the study Primary study limitations utilizes school census data, it cannot go much beyond capturing the impact on enrollment rates. Funding Source Chaudhury, N., & Parajuli, D. (2010). Conditional cash transfers and female schooling: the Reference(s) impact of the female school stipend programme on public school enrolments in Punjab, Pakistan. Applied Economics, 42(28), 3565-3583. Link to Studies http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840802167376 Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2