Reducing Child Labour Through Conditional Cash Transfers: Evidence from Nicaragua's Red de Protection Social

摘要

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes, providing eligible households with periodic cash payments, contingent on their children's adherence to school enrolment and attendance requirements, hold considerable promise for reducing levels of child labour across the developing world. This article presents the results of an analysis of a CCT programme in Nicaragua, Red de Protection Social, and compares them with those of other CCT programmes, discussing how the structure of each programme's incentives, including differences in targeting, subsidy amounts and educational requirements, contributes to the variation in their effectiveness at reducing child labour.