Does Child Sponsorship Pay off in Adulthood? An International Study of Impacts on Income and Wealth

We estimate the impact of international child sponsorship on adult income and wealth of formerly sponsored children using data on 10,144 individuals in six countries. To identify causal effects, we utilize an age-eligibility rule followed from 1980 to 1992 that limited sponsorship to children 12 years old or younger when the program was introduced in a village, allowing comparisons of sponsored children with older siblings who were slightly too old to be sponsored. Estimations indicate that international child sponsorship raised monthly income by approximately $15 over an untreated baseline of $75, principally from increasing future labor market participation. Formerly sponsored boys become more likely to have careers as teachers, tech workers, and hold salaried blue collar jobs as adults. Formerly sponsored girls are also more likely to enter the labor market, particularly as clerical workers, nurses, tech workers, and in careers in finance and business. We find evidence for positive impacts on overall dwelling quality in adulthood, sponsorship causing a 3 percentage point increase in the probability of living in a home with electricity. Sponsorship also significantly increases the probability of living in a rented or owned home independently from parents as an adult. Our results show modest evidence of impacts on adult ownership of consumer durables, mainly limited to increased ownership of mobile phones. Finally, we find modest effects of child sponsorship on reduced childbearing in adulthood, but insignificant impacts on age of marriage