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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

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Review Guidelines

Causal Evidence Guidelines

Absence of conflict of interest.

Citation

Ferro, A. R., Lúcia Kassouf, A., & Levison, D. (2010). The impact of conditional cash transfer programs on household work decisions in Brazil. In R. K. Akee, E. V. Edmonds, & K. Tatsiramos (Eds.), Child Labor and the Transition between School and Work (pp. 193-218). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.

Highlights

  • The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of the Bolsa Escola program, which provided conditional cash transfers to families in Brazil, on child labor and school enrollment.
  • The authors used a nonexperimental matched comparison group design to compare the outcomes of children ages 6-15 that received the conditional cash transfers with those who had applied but who had not received it (waitlisted families), based on data from Brazil’s national household survey.
  • The study found that receipt of the Bolsa Escola benefit was significantly related to higher rates of school enrollment and lower rates of child labor.
  • The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Bolsa Escola program; other factors are likely to have contributed.

Intervention Examined

Bolsa Escola

Features of the Intervention

The Bolsa Escola program is a conditional cash transfer program in Brazil. The program was launched nationally by the Brazilian government in 2001 to focus on education. In 2001, Bolsa Escola was providing monthly stipends to 8.6 million children in 5 million families. The participants included families with children ages 6 to 15 and monthly incomes below half of Brazil's minimum salary. The program paid 15 Reais ($6 USD) for each child who attended 85 percent of school days for a maximum of 3 children per family. In 2004, the program was merged with four other cash transfer programs, and while the school requirements remained the same, the program was expanded to include prenatal care and vaccines for children ages 0 to 6.

Features of the Study

The authors used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of children ages 6-15 that received the conditional cash transfers with those who had applied but who had not received it (waitlisted families), based on data from Brazil’s national household survey, the Pesquisa Nacional pr Amostra de Domicilios (PNAD) – 2003. Using several demographic characteristics, they created a matched comparison group of families who had applied but had not yet received the benefit to families in the treatment group to assess the effectiveness of the cash transfer program. The sample included families with no missing data across all variables, resulting in 14,434 children (4,230 in the control group and 10,204 in the treatment group) and 8,202 parents who participated in the study. The authors used statistical models to compare the outcomes of treatment and control groups and ran separate models for children in urban and rural areas.

Findings

Employment/Child labor

  • The study found that receipt of the Bolsa Escola benefit was significantly related to a reduction in child labor, with decreases in labor rates by 2 percent in urban areas and 6 to 9 percent in rural areas.

Education (School participation/enrollment)

  • The study found that receipt of the Bolsa Escola benefit was significantly related to an increase in school enrollment, with increases in enrollment rates by 2 percent in urban areas and 4 percent in rural areas.

Considerations for Interpreting the Findings

The authors created a matched group of non-participating eligible families to compare to Bolsa Escola participating families. However, the authors did not account for the outcomes at baseline, such as previous school attendance or child labor. Preexisting differences between the groups—and not the program/intervention— could explain the observed differences in outcomes.

Causal Evidence Rating

The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Bolsa Escola program; other factors are likely to have contributed.

Reviewed by CLEAR

December 2018

Topic Area