By the ILO.
The research reviewed 614 studies on child labour and forced labour identified by the ILO’s “Research to Action” (RTA) project and an additional 40 recent studies to obtain a sample of 41 randomized and quasi-experimental impact evaluations suitable for the meta-analysis. As several outcomes and interventions are reported in these studies, 131 effect-size estimates were collected; of these, 86 refer to the child’s probability of engaging in any type of activity, paid or unpaid, and 45 refer to hours of work.
The results suggest that cash transfers (both conditional and unconditional) seem to be quite successful in decreasing the probability of engaging in economic activities and working hours among children in developing countries. The summary effect size from other interventions is small and, in some cases, not statistically significant.
