Social Protection and Foundational Cognitive Skills during Adolescence - Evidence from a Large Public Works Program

Jul 19, 2026

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Many low- and middle-income countries use public works programs (PWPs) to reduce poverty, yet evidence on children’s developmental outcomes remains limited. This paper provides initial evidence that children from families participating in Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) show higher foundational cognitive skills. Tablet-based data from a longitudinal survey link childhood PSNP participation to long-term memory and implicit learning, with additional suggestive effects on working memory, strongest among households still participating at the time of measurement. Mechanisms may involve time reallocation away from unpaid labor and improvements in nutritional deficits after early-life rainfall shocks.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

Introduction

Public works programs and poverty reduction

Potential pathways to children’s development

Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized The World Bank Economic Review, 38(2), 2024, 296–318 [https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhad035](https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhad035) Article Social Protection and Foundational Cognitive Skills during Adolescence: Evidence from a Large Public Works Program Richard Freund , Marta Favara, Catherine Porter, and Jere Behrman Abstract Many low-and middle-income countries have introduced public works programs (PWPs) to fight poverty. This paper provides the first evidence that children from families who benefit from PWPs show increased foundational cognitive skills. The results, based on unique tablet-based data collected as part of a long-standing longitudinal survey, show positive associations between participation in the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia during childhood with long-term memory and implicit learning, and suggestive evidence for working memory. These associations appear to be strongest for children whose households were still PSNP participants in the year of data collection. Evidence suggests that the association with implicit learning maybe operating partially through children’s time reallocation away from unpaid labor responsibilities, while the association with long-term memory may in part be due to the program’s success in remediating nutritional deficits caused by early-life rainfall shocks. JEL classification: J24, I2, I1 Keywords: foundational cognitive skills, public works programs, Ethiopia, PSNP, executive function Richard Freund (corresponding author) is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town School of Economics, Cape Town, South Africa, 7701, and is a Research Affiliate at the Oxford Department of International Development; his email [address is FRNRIC009@myuct.ac.za. Marta Favara is a Senior Research Officer at the Oxford Department of International](address is FRNRIC009@myuct.ac.za. Marta Favara is a Senior Research Officer at the Oxford Department of International)[ ](address is FRNRIC009@myuct.ac.za. Marta Favara is a Senior Research Officer at the Oxford Department of International)Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, OX1 3TB, and is the Director of Research at Young Lives; her email address [is marta.favara@qeh.ox.ac.uk. Catherine Porter](is marta.favara@qeh.ox.ac.uk. Catherine Porter) is the Director of Young Lives and Professor in Development Economics atthe Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, UK, LA1 4YX; her email address is [catherine.porter@qeh.ox.ac.uk](catherine.porter@qeh.ox.ac.uk). Jere Behrman is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Science, Philadelphia, USA, PA 19104; his email address is [jbehrman@econ.upenn.edu. The](jbehrman@econ.upenn.edu. The) authors have nothing to disclose. This study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHDR21 HD097576] . Thanks also to the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for funding Young Lives at Work and enabling this research (grant number GB-GOV-1-301108) . Freund also acknowledges funding from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the University of Cape Town. Funders had no role in the design, interpretation, or writingup of the study, or in the decision to submit the study for consideration for publication. The Institutional Review Board of the University of Pennsylvania provided ethical approval for the project (protocol \#834313). Special thanks to Margaret Sheridan, Douglas Scott, Alan Sánchez, Annina Hittmeyer, Nicolás Pazos, Jennifer Lopez, Santiago Cueto, Tassew Woldehanna, and Alula Pankhurst for useful comments and feedback. A supplementary online appendix for this article can be found at The World Bank Economic Review website. 􀀂C The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK. Thi

FAQs

What developmental outcomes does the paper examine in relation to public works programs?

The paper focuses on children’s foundational cognitive skills, including long-term memory, implicit learning, and suggestive evidence for working memory and related executive function components.

How does PSNP participation in Ethiopia relate to cognitive skills during adolescence?

Based on tablet-based longitudinal survey data, participation during childhood is associated with better long-term memory and implicit learning, and the strongest results appear for children whose households continued PSNP participation in the year of data collection.

Through what mechanisms might PWPs influence cognitive outcomes?

The associations may operate partly through children’s reallocation of time away from unpaid labor responsibilities, and partly because the program may help remediate nutritional deficits linked to early-life rainfall shocks.

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Noah