This paper is organized in following headings: can we trust shoestring evaluations?; evaluation of development programs: randomized controlled trials or regressions?
... See More + ; effects of Colombia’s social protection system on workers’ choice between formal and informal employment; can conditional cash transfers compensate for a father’s absence? collective action and community development: evidence from self-help groups in rural India; excluding the rural population: the impact of public expenditure on child malnutrition in Peru; is small better? a comparison of the effect of large and small dams on cropland productivity in South Africa
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This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Children's schooling and work in the presence of a conditional cash transfer program in rural Colombia, conducted between 2001 and 2003 in Colombia.
... See More + The study observed the impact of familias en accion, a conditional cash transfer program implemented in rural areas in Colombia since 2002, on school enrolment and child labor on the child level. The program increased enrollment rates of 14 to 17 year old children substantially, between 5 and 7 percentage points. It also increased the already high enrollment rates of 8 to 13 year old children by between 1 and 3 percentage points. The impacts on child labor are greatest for younger children, whose domestic work decreased by 10 to 13 point but participation in income-generating work did not change significantly. Funding for the study derived from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
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This paper investigates how the permanent departure of the father from a household affects children’s school enrollment and work participation in rural Colombia.
... See More + The results indicate that the permanent departure of the father decreases children’s school enrollment by approximately 5 percentage points and increases child labor by 3 percentage points. This paper explores the rollout of a conditional-cash-transfer program during the period of study and shows that this program counteracts these adverse effects. When coupled with other evidence, this finding strongly suggests that the channel through which the father’s departure most affects children is by reducing the income of very poor households, which tightens their liquidity constraints. This finding also highlights the important safety-net role played by welfare programs with respect to disadvantaged households, particularly because these households are unlikely to have formal or informal mechanisms with which to insure themselves against such vagaries.
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This paper investigates how the permanent departure of the father from a household affects children's school enrollment and work participation in rural Colombia.
... See More + The results indicate that the permanent departure of the father decreases children's school enrollment by approximately 5 percentage points and increases child labor by 3 percentage points. This paper explores the rollout of a conditional-cash-transfer program during the period of study and shows that this program counteracts these adverse effects. When coupled with other evidence, this finding strongly suggests that the channel through which the father's departure most affects children is by reducing the income of very poor households, which tightens their liquidity constraints. This finding also highlights the important safety-net role played by welfare programs with respect to disadvantaged households, particularly because these households are unlikely to have formal or informal mechanisms with which to insure themselves against such vagaries.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6476 JUN 01, 2013
This note provides an introduction to the impact evaluation of labor market programs, with particular reference to developing countries. Its focus is on the main issues that need to be considered when planning an impact evaluation, including the importance of rigorous design for an evaluation, and on the statistical techniques used to estimate program impacts.
... See More + To help the exposition, a prototype of a training program is referred to intermittently throughout the note. This hypothetical training program, which authors call get-to-work, provides training to the unemployed to help them find work. The note describes some general issues that are important for any impact evaluation of employment programs, both in the design and analysis stages, regardless of the specific evaluation techniques used. It then describes the main evaluation techniques, including the data requirements and the main assumptions invoked by each.
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