Education and Child Labor: Experimental Evidence from a Nicaraguan Conditional Cash Transfer Program

John A. Maluccio, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

The Red de Protección Social (RPS) is a conditional cash program, modeled after PROGRESA, to reduce both current and future poverty via cash transfers to households living in extreme poverty in rural Nicaragua. This chapter examines the education- and child labor-related effects of the program, presenting results from a randomized community-based trial. The evidence demonstrates that RPS had a significant and substantial effect on schooling matriculation and enrollment during its first year of operation. Moreover, it led to a substantial reduction in child labor for the school age population.