information sessions instead of looking at the impacts of microfinance in areas with little or no exposure to lending institutions. Attanasio et al. (2015) analyzed the impacts of two types of contractual agreements (group-lending and individual-lending) offered to poor women in randomly selected villages in rural Mongolia. While the individual liability microcredit program did not yield significant impacts on socioeconomic outcomes, enterprise ownership and consumption increased among those who were offered the group loan. Also, adults increased their labor supply in the female-run household business while the number of hours worked by teens (aged 16 – 20) declined. There are no clear effects on child labor (measured as hours worked in self-employment, household business, and other activities). Estimations not displayed but discussed in the text suggest that there were impacts among low-educated group borrowers, who seem to substitute away from outside labor by children to help in the newly established female-run enterprises.

# **_3.2.2 Micro-insurance_**

Evidence on other types of micro-finance programs is limited. A study of Pakistan’s National Rural Support Program suggests that insurance against health shocks has the potential to lower child labor. The program provides eligible clients with microcredit accompanied with mandatory health insurance for loan clients, their spouses, and their children under the age of 18. Landmann and Frölich (2015) examine whether an extension of this mandatory insurance scheme offered to clients in 9 microcredit branch offices, affected child labor. The randomized extension consisted of two components offered in treatment branches only (i) voluntary insurance for additional household members not belonging to the nuclear family (such as adult children of the client, parents, cousins, etc.) and (ii) assistance with claim procedures. The clients in the control branches (4 branches) were not aware of the treatment. The estimates show that the insurance extension reduced participation in child labor (defined per ILO’s official legal definition) and children’s engagement in hazardous work, hours worked by children and children’s earnings. The exact magnitude of these effects differs by follow-up survey wave (four survey waves were conducted at 6-month intervals after the baseline survey) and are particularly strong for boys. Given that there is only one study, however, more is needed to establish the potential effectiveness of micro-insurance programs on addressing child labor.

# **3.3 Cash Transfers**

Unconditional cash transfer (UCT) programs provide income transfers to poor households without strings attached. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs also provide income transfers but require recipient households to comply with schooling (e.g. enrollment of their children) and health (e.g. vaccination, health clinic visits etc.) requirements. As pointed out before, cash transfer programs may have offsetting effects on child participation in work. Increases in income available to the household will tend to lower child participation in work and this reduction in work activities will tend to be stronger if the cash transfers are provided conditional on school attendance, which lower the price of schooling. However, households may also invest the transferred resources in productive assets (see for instance Gertler, Martinez, and Rubio-Codina, 2012; Sadoulet, de Janvry, and Davis, 2001), thus opening new opportunities for children either 16