Educate the girls: Long run effects of secondary school for girls in Pakistan
Objectives
The study aimed to assess whether Pakistan’s female-focused conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, targeting girls’ secondary school enrolment in Punjab, reduced early marriage and early childbearing. Specifically, it sought to (i) estimate the causal impact of exposure to the program on marriage before age 16 and first birth before age 16, and (ii) explore whether changes in school participation served as a pathway through which the CCT influenced these outcomes.
Findings
The evaluation shows that the CCT substantially improved outcomes for adolescent girls. Each additional year of exposure to the program significantly lowered the likelihood of marriage and childbirth before age 16. Girls exposed longer to the program were more likely to remain in school and delay transitions into marriage and motherhood. The analysis indicates that increased school attendance is a key mechanism, suggesting that financial incentives tied to education can meaningfully shift life trajectories in settings with high pressure for early marriage.
Recommendations
The authors recommend scaling and sustaining female-focused CCTs to reduce early marriage and early childbearing in similar contexts. Targeting incentives to secondary-school aged girls can generate substantial protective effects by keeping them in school during the most vulnerable years. Policymakers should integrate such programs into broader gender and education strategies, ensure reliable program funding, and complement cash transfers with efforts to address social norms that reinforce early marriage.
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