The influence ofBolsa Familiaconditional cash transfer program on child labor in Brazil

Paloma Santana Moreira Pais, Felipe de Figueiredo Silva and Evandro Camargos Teixeira

International Journal of Social Economics, 2017, vol. 44, issue 2, 206-221

Abstract: Purpose - The Brazilian Government created theBolsa Familiaprogram to combat poverty and the insertion of so many children into the labor market. This program is an income transfer program subject to certain conditions such as a minimum school attendance for children under 17 years of age. In 2006, almost half of the people with an income per capita of R$300.00 (US$139.53) per month declared that they received this benefit. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact ofBolsa Familiaon child labor in Brazil in 2006. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used a propensity score matching model with data from the National Household Sample SurveyPESQUISA NACIONAL POR AMOSTRA DE DOMICÍLIOS (PNAD), for 2006. Findings - Results indicate that the program increased the number of hours of child labor in Brazil. However, this outcome might be explained by the fact that those families who receivedBolsa Familiawere also those with higher socioeconomic vulnerability. Thus, they need to guarantee their survival with the income generated via child labor. Social implications - The Brazilian Government needs to invest not only in monetary transfer policies but also in the improvement of the job market to create opportunities for the social development of children. Originality/value - The contribution of the paper is the investigation into the effect of theBolsa Familiaprogram on the average time allocated to child labor; the authors find that this time allocation could be reduced by requiring a compulsory school attendance.

Keywords: Brazil; Education; Child labour; Bolsa Familia program (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-02-2015-0038

DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-02-2015-0038

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Social Economics is currently edited by Professor Terence Garrett

More articles in International Journal of Social Economics from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support (feeds@emerald.com).