IMPACT OF THE CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFER BOLSA FAMÍLIA ON THE DECISIONS OF CHILD LABOR: AN ANALYSIS USING PNAD MICRODATA

Abstract

In 2011, 4.33% of children between 5 and 15 years were working or engaged in activity for own consumption or building for their own use. The main goal of this paper is to examine the impact of the conditional cash transfer program Bolsa Família on child labor. The impact was estimated by the method of propensity score matching. Also was estimated regressions using, alternatively, income from conditional cash transfers as an explanatory variable. The data used are from the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio (PNAD), the Brazilian annual household survey of 2011. The results show that the program has no significant impact on the probability of work and on hours worked. Additionally, it is observed that the income from social cash transfer has negative and significant impact on the probability of child work and on the number of hours worked. Thus, although participation in the program has no impact on child labor, the income from the program acts to reduce the probability of child labor and the number of hours worked.