Evaluating Decentralized Social Sector Programs: Evidence from Morocco’s BAJ

This paper combines information from two nationwide household surveys in Morocco, spanning eight years, to evaluate the impact of the Social Priorities Program (BAJ) on access to social services. The empirical analysis is based on refinements of the basic differences-in-differences approach, the most important of which allows for heterogeneous program impacts at the province level. The main finding is that, overall, BAJ provinces do not show significant gains in access to health facilities, as measured by clinic visits and medicine acquisition, or in school enrollment. However, a more detailed analysis of girls’ school enrollment indicates that the majority of provinces did show significant improvement, but that these gain are obscured when aggregated along with those of other BAJ provinces that show no improvement.