  Direct cash transfer programs have shown success as poverty interventions in
both the developing and developed world, yet little research exists examining
the society-wide outcomes of an unconditional cash transfer program disbursed
without means-testing. This paper attempts to determine the impact of direct
cash transfers on educational outcomes in a developed society by investigating
the impacts of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, which was launched in 1982
and continues to be disbursed on an annual basis to every Alaskan. A synthetic
control model is deployed to examine the path of educational attainment among
Alaskans between 1977 and 1991 in order to determine if high school status
completion rates after the launch of the dividend diverge from the synthetic in
a manner suggestive of a treatment effect.
