Speaker
Description
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are key social safety net tools in middleincome countries, designed to alleviate poverty and influence household behaviors in education and healthcare. While their effectiveness in achieving these goals is well-documented, research increasingly examines their broader consequences, including labour market outcomes. However, the way CCTs shape the trade-offs between labour market work, own-use production of services (OPS), such as unpaid care and chore work, and the potential time reallocation within households remains understudied. This paper addresses this gap using the case of the Brazilian Programa Bolsa Fam´ılia (PBF). We construct a unique panel from the Brazilian employment survey to examine labour market effects and leverage its crosssectional data to analyze OPS outcomes. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we assess changes in labour market outcomes before and during PBF receipt. Additionally, we conduct a correlational analysis of OPS work, focusing on heterogeneous dynamics linked to household composition. Early findings indicate that while PBF does not reduce overall female labour market participation, it lowers the likelihood of securing formal employment and shifts women towards informal jobs, which offer greater flexibility for balancing work and domestic duties. These effects are uniform across women with and without children, though beneficiary mothers are less likely to hold formal jobs, suggesting an income effect that encourages specialisation in unpaid domestic work rather than a withdrawal induced by programme conditionalities. The correlational analysis reveals that PBF is linked to an increase in the weekly hours women devote to unpaid domestic work — in absolute and as a share of their total working time — a pattern not observed among men. Notably, regardless of PBF or family status, women consistently perform around 70% of unpaid domestic work of the family. These results highlight the gendered trade-offs induced by CCT programs, suggesting that while they provide crucial financial support and improve education and health outcomes, they may also maintain traditional gender roles by shifting women’s time allocation away from the labour market and toward unpaid domestic work.
| Keyword | Gender Economics |
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