We examine the effects of the South African Child Support Grant on the
educational outcomes of older teenagers. We find that beneficiaries have enrolment
rates at least ten percent higher than non-beneficiaries, and these
effects are even higher in certain specific groups. Non-parametric estimates
show that duration of receipt is also an important predictor of enrolment.
However grant receipt has no impact on educational attainment. We make
use of the exogenous nature of the grant roll-out to identify these effects.
Potential mechanisms to explain this result include an alleviation of school
costs, and an improvement in the adolescent mental health.