Child labor, school attendance, and indigenous households2005

"The authors use panel data for Mexico for 1997 to 1999 to test several assumptions regarding the impact of a conditional cash transfer program on child labor, emphasizing the differential impact on indigenous households. Using data from the conditional cash transfer program in Mexico--PROGRESA (OPORTUNIDADES)--they investigate the interaction between child labor and indigenous households. While indigenous children had a greater probability of working in 1997, this probability is reversed after treatment in the program. Indigenous children also had lower school attainment compared with Spanish-speaking or bilingual children. After the program, school attainment among indigenous children increased, reducing the gap. This paper--a product of the Education Sector Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to evaluate human development programs"--World Bank web site.