Absence of Conflict of Interest.
Citation
Maluccio, J. A. (2009). Education and child labor: Experimental evidence from a Nicaraguan conditional cash transfer program. In P. F. Orazem, G. Sedlacek, & Z. Tzannatos (Eds.), Child labor and education in Latin America: An economic perspective (pp. 187-204). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. doi.org/10.1057/9780230620100_12
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of the Red de Proteccion Social (RPS) cash transfer program on school attendance and enrollment and on child labor for children aged 7-13 in rural Nicaragua.
- Using panel survey data collected before and one year after program implementation, the author measured the impact of RPS using a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
- The study found that participation in RPS was significantly related to a reduction in child labor and a significant increase in school enrollment and attendance.
- The quality of the causal evidence presented in this report is low because, while it was based on an RCT, attrition was high and the authors did not demonstrate that the groups were similar at baseline. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Red de Proteccion Social; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Red de Protección Social (RPS)
Features of the Intervention
The Red de Proteccion Social (RPS) was a pilot government program to reduce both current and future poverty via cash transfers to households living in extreme poverty in rural Nicaragua. The transfers were conditional on school attendance and promotion to the next grade. The objectives of the program were to supplement the household income for up to three years to increase expenditures for food, increasing healthcare, and nutritional status of children under age 5, and reducing school dropout during the first four years of school (cash transfer equivalent to $112 USD annually in 2000).
Features of the Study
Creation of the treatment and control groups occurred in three stages of geographic targeting. First, two departments (i.e., administrative or political subdivisions) were selected based on need and capacity to implement the program, including existing education and health facilities. Second, six municipalities within the departments were chosen based on poverty level and capacity to participate in the pilot program. Finally, 42 localities within the municipalities were selected using a marginality index based on 1995 National Population and Housing Census data. Localities were rank ordered by a marginality index then stratified into seven groups of six localities each. From each group, three localities were randomly selected into the treatment group, while the remaining three localities served as controls, resulting in 21 treatment localities and 21 control localities. All households in the treatment group received a $224 USD cash transfer annually; families with children ages 7 to 13 who had not completed the fourth grade received an additional $133 USD annually for a school attendance and school supplies transfer. The control group did not receive the cash transfers.
Data were obtained through a household level panel survey. At baseline, the survey was administered to a stratified random sample of 1,585 households, approximately 13 percent of the household population in the study area. A follow-up survey was also conducted to the original baseline households, re-interviewing 1,494 households.
The purpose of the analysis was to assess whether there were differences between the treatment and the control groups due to the RPS on child labor, and school attendance and enrollment for children 7 to 13 years of age.
Findings
Employment/Child labor
- The study found a statistically significant relationship between the RPS program and a reduction in child labor. When compared to control group children, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of children working (9-percentage point difference) for RPS participating children ages 10 to 13.
Education (School participation/enrollment)
- The study found a statistically significant relationship between the RPS program and an increase in school enrollment. When compared to control group children, there was a significant increase in the percentage of RPS participating children enrolled in school (22-percentage point difference).
- The RPS was also significantly associated with an increase in school attendance, with an average 29-percentage point difference between the treatment and control group.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The original study was a randomized controlled trial with high attrition, which affected the treatment and control groups’ comparability on background characteristics that could have affected the causal outcomes of interest; CLEAR reviews the study as a regression analysis. The authors also did not report tests of baseline equivalence on the control variables. There is also no explanation as to how the localities were stratified into the seven groups before randomization into the treatment or control groups. Another consideration was the potential for measurable changes in localities due to the novelty of the program, or Hawthorne Effect, which may inflate the impact of the RPS on the treatment localities.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because, although it was based on a randomized controlled trial, attrition was high and the authors did not demonstrate that groups were similar at baseline. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Red de Proteccion Social; other factors are likely to have contributed.