Do Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Improve Work and Earnings among its Youth Beneficiaries? Evidence after a Decade of a Mexican Cash Transfer Program

Susan Parker, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
Luis Rubalcava, Spectron Desarrollo S.C. and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
Graciela M. Teruel, Universidad Iberoamericana

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs were first introduced in Brazil and Mexico more than a decade ago. Some of the most important impacts of CCTs, including their longer-term effects on schooling and work, can be measured directly only after a significant number of years of program operation. Surprisingly little is known about the longer-term impacts of CCTs despite the rapid spread of these programs. This paper uses the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS) to estimate long term impacts of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on the well-being of youth beneficiaries, focusing on labor market outcomes as well as education. Using three rounds of the longitudinal MxFLS (2002, 2005, 2009), we provide impact estimates in rural areas after more than 10 years of program operations on work participation, earnings, sector of participation and other job characteristics as well as on completed education.