Despite the popularity of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) across Latin America, and proponents’ insistence that the programmes alleviate poverty in the long term, there is a lack of evidence on the impact of such programmes on students’ educational achievement. This paper represents one of just a handful of studies on the impact of CCTs on educational achievement, and to the author’s knowledge, it is the first evaluation of its kind for Peru’s Juntos.

Using quasi-experimental methods, this study analyses the differential impacts Juntos has by maternal education. Results show that Juntos has a negative impact on students whose mothers completed primary school.

These results contribute to the wider debate on ability tracking in education and the long-term effectiveness of CCTs across Latin America.