Evaluating the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) as a safety net against student dropout and child labor in the occurrence of shocks
Date
2016-12-20
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Abstract
This paper aims to evaluate the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) – the country’s flagship anti-poverty measure and one of the more important components of our social protection portfolio – and its efficacy as an effetive safety net that can protect households from doing unproductive coping mechanisms, with emphasis on child labor and student dropout, against the adverse effects of transitory shocks. Utilizing a unique, nationally-representative social protection survey data, we used propensity score matching (PSM) to estimate average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) as a measure of the program’s impact. We found significantly higher chances of child labor, and insignificant yet varying possible circumstances of student dropout among 4Ps beneficiary households in order to mitigate the negative consequences of shocks, despite the conditions on educational outcomes set by the program. Overall, based on our empirical estimates, we conclude that the 4Ps is not an effective coping mechanism against the the adverse effects of shocks on child welfare.
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Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, shocks, social protection, impact evaluation, propensity score matching