In Her Hands: Long-term effects of designating mothers as beneficiaries of cash transfers for education

This project studies the long-term effects of designating mothers as beneficiaries of cash transfer programs. It leverages the experimental design accompanying Tayssir, a government program that provides cash transfers to poor households with school-age children in rural Morocco. When the program was piloted in 2008 in 270 school sectors (with 1,260 primary schools and over 75,000 beneficiary households), whether transfers were made to fathers or mothers was randomized at the school sector level. Upon completion of the pilot, the program was extended to the whole country with fathers as beneficiaries, but in the initial pilot sample, the initial assignment was maintained. Program data shows that, 15 years after the pilot, the share of female beneficiaries in the initial “transfer to mothers” communities was still above two-thirds, while it was only 10% in the initial “transfers to fathers” communities. Qualitative interviews conducted in July 2024 suggest receiving transfers was potentially transformative for women and their children because it modified how the transfers were utilized, particularly whether they were used for children’s schooling inputs. It could also have modified girls’ aspirations. To measure impacts on learning, researchers will use administrative data on school progression and standardized tests. We will conduct field visits to document mechanisms.