Sarah Baird|Ephraim Chirwa|Craig McIntosh|Berk Özler
The short?term impacts of a schooling conditional cash transfer program on the sexual behavior of young women
George Washington University|University of Malawi|World Bank Group
recent evidence suggests conditional cash transfer cct programs schooling effective raising school enrollment attendance however also reason believe programs affect outcomes sexual behavior young beneficiaries zomba cash transfer program randomized ongoing cct intervention targeting young women malawi provides incentives form school fees cash transfers current schoolgirls recent dropouts stay return school average offer us10month conditional satisfactory school attendance plus direct payment secondary school fees led significant declines early marriage teenage pregnancy selfreported sexual activity among program beneficiaries one year program implementation program beneficiaries school baseline probability getting married becoming pregnant declined 40 30 respectively addition incidence onset sexual activity 38 lower among program beneficiaries control group overall results suggest cct programs serve useful tools improving school attendance may also reduce sexual activity teen pregnancy early marriage