Building dreams: The short-term impacts of a conditional cash transfer program on aspirations for higher education

This paper analyses the short-term impacts of a large scale conditional cash transfer program on educational aspirations in poor households. Using data from the impact evaluation of the Colombian program Familias en Action and a difference-in-differences approach, we find a positive impact on aspirations for higher education, for both children and parents. After more than one year of exposure, parents were 11 percentage points more likely to aspire for higher education for their children, and children were 20 percentage points more likely to aspire to higher education. The effect was larger for parents in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged households.