Social Programs and Formal Employment: Evidence from the Brazilian Bolsa Família Program
IMF Working Papers, June 19, 2020
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- Social Programs and Formal Employment: Evidence from the Brazilian Bolsa Família Program
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Anna Fruttero, Alexandre Ribeiro Leichsenring, Luis Henrique Paiva
- Published: June 19, 2020
- Series: IMF Working Papers
Research question and context
- Employment is key to combating poverty; critics argue social assistance programs create disincentives to work.
- Existing evidence shows limited effects of social programs on overall labor supply, but the impact on formal employment remains uncertain.
- The paper focuses on Brazil’s Bolsa Família program, described as one of the oldest and largest conditional cash transfers in the world.
Methodology
- Exploits an unannounced change in the eligibility rule of the Bolsa Família program to identify causal effects.
- Combines three large administrative datasets to measure outcomes.
Key findings
- The program has a positive effect on entry in the formal labor market.
- Positive effects are concentrated especially for younger cohorts.
Thematic keywords and subjects
- Subjects: Employment, Labor, Labor markets, Labor supply, National accounts, Personal income
- Keywords: Anti Poverty, Bolsa Familia program, Brazil, cash transfer programs, eligibility cutoff, Employment, employment relation, formalization of Bolsa Familia beneficiary, government program, higher-labor-supply individual, income effect, Informality, job act, job searching, labor market, labor market formalization, labor market job, labor market outcome, labor market participation, labor market vis-a-vis, Labor markets, Labor supply, Latin America, Personal income, Poverty, result, Social programs, treatment effect, Welfare, Well Being, WP
Implications and takeaways
- Conditional cash transfer programs like Bolsa Família can facilitate formalization of employment rather than solely creating work disincentives.
- Effects are heterogeneous across cohorts, with younger individuals showing stronger formal labor market entry responses.
- Policy discussions on social assistance should consider program-specific eligibility changes and administrative data linkages to assess impacts on formal employment.
IMF Working Paper No. 2020/099, June 19, 2020
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