Opportunities for higher education: the ten-year effects of conditional cash transfers on upper-secondary and tertiary enrollments

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of the conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on rural enrollment/completion in higher education, ten years after the initiation of the program in Mexico. We use data from the International Food Policy Research Institute and employ a Regression Discontinuity approach. We find that Oportunidades eligible households had higher 2007 technical school (14–18 year olds) and college (39+) enrollment/completion relative to comparable non-eligible households. However, the program benefits are heterogeneous depending on school access. Accounting for access to schools, we find that the program also had positive effects for school enrollment/completion for upper secondary (14–18) and college (19–28, 29–38). Further, we find positive tertiary education benefits for individuals in treated households who were too old to qualify for benefits directly, indicating either positive externalities or complementarities for individuals residing in eligible households. Possible mechanisms are relaxing budget constraints, and changes in educational aspirations.

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