O impacto do Programa Bolsa Família sobre o trabalho infantil na Região Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

This study reports the importance of assessing the impact of the transfer program Bolsa Familia income or decrease in the eradication of child labor in the Northeast. It is known that a child who works has a lower school performance, and reach a final level of education lower than that achieved by those who do not work, therefore, when adults receive lower salaries than individuals who began work later this mechanism is known as the cycle of perpetuating poverty. Assuming that the children work to supplement family income, initiatives aimed at combating child labor to help bridge gaps between poor and non-poor, since it operates in one of his causes. The goal of the programs of income transfer is to focus on actions that can break the cycle that keeps poor several generations of one family. The Bolsa Familia program does not formally require that the child is away from work activities for which the benefit is granted, however, there is the obligatory school attendance, reducing the time available for other activities, and the transfer is made in cash to replace the labor income of the child means that the output of the labor market is a side effect or overflow (spillover) from a program whose core is fueling demand for formal education and alleviate poverty chain. We evaluated the impact of the Bolsa Familia program on child labor in Northeast Brazil, using micro data from PNAD 2004 and the special supplement of the PNAD 2006 - Complementary Aspects of Education, Domestic Work and Children, through the following strategy: model probit where the dependent variable is one if the child works and zero if it does not work. It was concluded that with regard to the impact of being or not the Family Grant program, the program affects both the probability of studying and working in the Northeast, but the tests were not conclusive regarding the family's decision to enter their children into the labor market.