Poverty and parental discipline

Across and within countries, there are large differences in how parents discipline their children, and frequently, poverty is associated with higher levels of physical punishment. We leverage the roll-out of a conditional cash transfer program in Peru to test whether its introduction changes parental discipline practices. We find that in districts that begin to receive the program, the average level of reported physical punishment by mothers and fathers among the poor declines by at least 2.7 percentage points (11%) driven by reductions in slapping. Our findings suggest that program participation may have additional second-order benefits through the reduction of harsh physical forms of discipline practices. • Rates of physical punishment are higher among the poor in Peru. • A conditional cash transfer program reduced average rates of slapping among the poor. • Mediation analysis suggests economic conditions and conditionalities play a role.