Working Papers
The Lasting Effects of Early Childhood Interventions: The National Vaccination Commando Program in Burkina Faso (R. Daramola, S. Hossain and K. Ncharé), Current version, May 2024.
Abstract: This study evaluates the long-term impacts of the National Vaccination Commando Program, an early childhood health intervention in Burkina Faso, during the 1980s. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find significant reductions in child mortality and improvements in educational attainment, including increased primary school completion rates. We also find significant positive effects on adult employment and agricultural productivity, yielding a substantial rate of return on the initial health intervention. These findings underscore the lasting benefits of early childhood health interventions in low-income countries.
Exposure to Agricultural Technologies and Adoption: The West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program in Ghana, Senegal and Mali (with Yiriyibin Bambio, and Anurag Deb), Current version, May 2022.
Abstract: We estimate the effects of increased exposure to agricultural technologies on farmers’ adoption and economic well-being in Ghana, Mali, and Senegal using post-- implementation data collected in 2019. The program, known as the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), aimed at improving agricultural productivity to enhance economic growth, food security and to reduce poverty and ran in two phases. We focus on the second phase of the program, which ran between 2012 and 2019. We use ex-ante matching at the village and household levels to select the estimation sample. We find that the treatment raised technology adoption by 0.32 percentage points and the adoption of improved seeds by 0.20 percentage points. The program also increased productivity and income of the treated households by 10% and 17% respectively, relative to the comparison households. There were no detectable effects on consumption and food security. We provide suggestive evidence indicating that the additional income may have been saved or invested. Taken together, these results suggest that multi-country agricultural programs can be effective at spurring economic transformation.
Agricultural Transformation and Farmers' Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Uganda (with Jacopo Bonan and Mariapia Mendola), Current Version: December 2022
Abstract: This paper uses the randomized roll-out of a national agricultural extension program in Uganda to study subsistence smallholders' decisions to adopt cash oilseed crops and shift to commercial farming. By eliciting farmers' ex-ante yield and price expectations, we examine how these beliefs evolve in response to the intervention and their role on farmers' adoption choice. We find that information provision through extension services makes farmers significantly revise expectations up and increases oilseeds adoption by 15% on average. Results suggest that changing farmers' beliefs is a major intermediate driver in the decision process of agricultural technology take-up, thereby justifying information-centered interventions aimed at correcting systematic mis-perceptions about crop profitability.
Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Household Welfare Impacts of Conditional and Unconditional Cash Transfers Given to Mothers or Fathers (with Richard Akresh and Damien de Walque), Current version: December 2020
Abstract: We conducted a randomized control trial in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact of alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on education, health, and household welfare outcomes. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional or unconditional and were given to either mothers or fathers. Conditionality was linked to older children enrolling in school and attending regularly and younger children receiving preventive health check-ups. Compared to the control group, cash transfers improve children’s education and health and household socioeconomic conditions. For school enrollment and most child health outcomes, conditional cash transfers outperform unconditional cash transfers. Giving cash to mothers does not lead to significantly better child health or education outcomes, and there is evidence that money given to fathers improves young children’s health, particularly during years of poor rainfall. Cash transfers to fathers also yields relatively more household investment in livestock, cash crops, and improved housing.
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7730
The Long-Term Impacts of Girl-Friendly Schools: Evidence from the BRIGHT School Construction Program in Burkina Faso (with N. Ingwersen, L. Linden, A. Mamun, A. Protik and M. Sloan), Current Version: June 2019
Abstract: We evaluate the long-term effects of a “girl-friendly” primary school program in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design. Ten years later, primary school-age children in villages selected for the program attend school more often and score significantly higher on standardized tests. We also find long-term effects on academic and social outcomes for children exposed earlier in the program. Secondary-school–age youths and young adults (those old enough to have finished secondary school) complete primary and secondary school at higher rates and perform significantly better on standardized tests. Women old enough to have completed secondary school delay both marriage and childbearing.
The Medium-Term Impacts of Girl-Friendly Schools: Seven-Year Evidence from School Construction in Burkina Faso (with Leigh Linden, Ali Protik and Matt Sloan), Current Version: June 2019
Abstract: We evaluate the long-term effect of a “girl-friendly” primary school program in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design. The intervention consisted of upgrading existing three-classroom schools to six-classroom schools to accommodate more grades. After seven years, the program increased enrollment by 15.5 percentage points and increased test scores by 0.29 standard deviations. Students in treatment schools progress further through the grades, compared to students in non-selected schools. These upgraded schools are effective at getting children into school, getting children to start school on time, and keeping children in school longer. Overall, we find that the schools sustain the large impacts observed about three years earlier, with enrollment declining slightly from 18.5 to 14.9 for the cohorts of children who were exposed to both the first and second phases of the intervention.
Child Labor, Schooling, and Child Ability (with Richard Akresh, Emilie Bagby and Damien de Walque), Current version: January 2017
Abstract: Using data we collected in rural Burkina Faso, we examine how children’s cognitive abilities influence households’ decisions to invest in their education. To address the endogeneity of child ability measures, we use rainfall shocks experienced in utero or early childhood to instrument for ability. Negative shocks in utero lead to 0.24 standard deviations lower ability z-scores, corresponding with a 38 percent enrollment drop and a 49 percent increase in child labor hours compared with their siblings. Negative education impacts are largest for in utero shocks, diminished for shocks before age two, and have no impact for shocks after age two. We link the fetal origins hypothesis and sibling rivalry literatures by showing that shocks experienced in utero not only have direct negative impacts on the child’s cognitive ability (fetal origins hypothesis) but also negatively impact the child through the effects on sibling rivalry resulting from the cognitive differences.
World Bank Development Impact Blog Post
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5965
Cash Transfers and Child Schooling: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Conditionality (with Richard Akresh and Damien de Walque), Current version: January 2013
Abstract: The authors conduct a randomized experiment in rural Burkina Faso to estimate the impact of alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on education. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional or unconditional. Families under the conditional schemes were required to have their children ages 7-15 enrolled in school and attending classes regularly. There were no such requirements under the unconditional programs. The results indicate that unconditional and conditional cash transfer programs have a similar impact increasing the enrollment of children who are traditionally favored by parents for school participation, including boys, older children, and higher ability children. However, the conditional transfers are significantly more effective than the unconditional transfers in improving the enrollment of “marginal children” who are initially less likely to go to school, such as girls, younger children, and lower ability children. Thus, conditionality plays a critical role in benefiting children who are less likely to receive investments from their parents.
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6340