Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Children’s Academic Performance in China
利用中国一个国家级贫困县所有中学学生的纵向学业记录，采用双重差分法估计精准扶贫项目对贫困家庭学生学业成绩的因果影响，发现该项目显著提升了女生的成绩和排名，但对男生无显著影响。
This paper estimates the causal impact of China’s targeted poverty alleviation program on the academic achievement of students from poor households. We use the longitudinal academic records of a cohort of students from all middle schools in a nationally designated poor county in China. Using the difference‐in‐differences approach, we show that targeted poverty alleviation improves the scholastic performance of girls and their achievement rank among peer students. However, we find no such empirical evidence for boys. Our findings suggest that the new anti‐poverty program in China has the potential to ameliorate the intergenerational transmission of low socioeconomic status to girls by promoting their human capital accumulation.