Exploring the Differential Impact of Public Interventions on Indigenous People's Schooling and Child Labor: Lessons from Mexico's Conditional Cash Transfers Program

This paper uses panel data for Mexico for 1997 to 2000 in order to test several assumptions regarding the differential impact on indigenous households’ child labor and school attendance of a conditional cash transfer program (CCT). Using data from the CCT PROGRESA-Oportunidades, we investigate the interaction between child labor, education and the condition of being indigenous. While indigenous children had a greater probability of working in 1997, this probability is reversed after treatment in the program. Indigenous children also had originally lower school attainment compared with Spanish-speaking or bilingual children. After the program, school attainment among indigenous children increased, reducing the gap. In terms of child labor, the larger reduction is in the group of indigenous-bilingual children.