Impact of the Uruguayan conditional cash transfer program

we analyze the impact of conditional cash payments on school enrollment, child labor and labor supply implemented between 2005 and 2007 to the poorest uruguayan households. targeting income discontinuities are not observed around the thresholds to participate in the program and this result invalidates the use of regression discontinuity designsfor evaluating causal effects of the intervention. we apply the propensity score matching estimator to account for the endogenity of program participation. we find that the program has no impact on school attendance but reduces female child labor in montevideo. in addition negative effects are detected on the labor market in the rest of the urban areas.