Early-Childhood Nutrition and Educational Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes

Abstract

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have been linked to improvements in education, but effects on nutritional status are unclear. We develop a theoretical household model demonstrating how CCTs’ educational requirements may constrain households to shift resources from younger to older children to sustain school attendance. This could limit households’ capacity to invest in young children's nutritional status, particularly given a negative income shock. In a Nicaraguan pilot CCT, recipients’ consumption and nutritional status increased on average, but less in households with school-age children. Effects are stronger in communities dealt an exogenous income shock.