2008年-世界发展银行全球_Poverty_Alleviation_and_Child_Labor_35页_272kb

Summary of "Poverty Alleviation and Child Labor" by Eric V. Edmonds and Norbert Schady

Core Content

This paper evaluates the impact of an unconditional cash transfer program, the Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH), on child labor in Ecuador. It focuses on how changes in household income affect the decision to send children to work or to school, particularly among the most vulnerable children.

Main Viewpoints

• Child Labor and Income: The paper investigates whether child labor decreases as household income increases, which has important implications for child labor policy.
• Targeted Impact: The effect of the BDH cash transfer is expected to be most significant for children who are at the margin of transitioning from schooling to work, especially those in the older age groups.
• Economic Factors and Schooling: The study highlights that schooling costs and the opportunity cost of time are key determinants of child labor decisions.
• Empirical Evidence: The findings suggest that the BDH transfer leads to a decrease in paid work, especially for older children, and an increase in school enrollment, particularly for girls.
• Expenditure Changes: Despite the cash transfer, total household expenditures do not increase and may even decrease for those most affected by the transfer due to reduced child labor.

Key Information

Program Overview

• The BDH program provides $15 per month to families in the poorest two quintiles of Ecuador.
• The program was implemented in 4 out of 24 provinces with a randomized design, where parishes were randomly assigned to receive the transfer or not.
• Leakage is noted, as 38% of the control group also received the transfer, necessitating an intent-to-treat analysis.

Empirical Findings

• Work for Pay: The BDH transfer is associated with a decline in paid market work for children who are most vulnerable to transitioning from school to work.
• School Enrollment: There is an increase in school enrollment, particularly for girls and children in rural areas.
• Domestic Work: While market work decreases, domestic work (such as cooking and cleaning) appears to increase slightly but is not statistically significant.
• Income Elasticity: The transfer has small effects on younger children and those already out of school, but larger effects on older children transitioning from school to work.
• Expenditure Trends: Total household expenditures do not increase and may decline for families most affected by the transfer, due to reduced child labor.

Theoretical Framework

• The paper uses a theoretical model from Basu and Van (1998) to predict the effects of the BDH.
• The model assumes that child labor is determined by subsistence needs and opportunity costs.
• It introduces the luxury axiom, which states that child labor decreases when family income exceeds subsistence levels.
• Heterogeneity in subsistence perception and schooling costs plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the transfer.

Age-Specific Effects

• Younger Children (6–11 years): Schooling is nearly universal, and the transfer has small effects on their time allocation.
• Children Aged 12–13: This is the critical transition period from school to work, where the transfer has the largest impact.
• Older Children (14–17 years): The effect of the transfer diminishes as children age, especially for those who are already working.

Methodology

• The empirical strategy is based on the Basu and Van (1998) model.
• The reduced form model includes parish fixed effects, age dummies, and a gender effect.
• The BDH lottery winner is used as a proxy for the transfer.
• Standard errors are clustered at the parish level to account for local variation.

Conclusion

The study concludes that small, targeted increases in household income can have a significant impact on reducing child labor and increasing school enrollment, particularly among children at the transition age from school to work. The findings support the importance of schooling costs and subsistence needs in child labor decisions and highlight the potential of unconditional cash transfers in alleviating child labor in poor households.