We suggest new evidence on minimum age regulations using a natural experiment. In 1998, a constitutional reform has changed the minimum working age from 14 to 16 in Brazil. The reform was the legislative counterpart of a broad set of measures taken by a government strongly committed to fighting child labor. We document the fact that enforcement and compliance may have been heterogeneous across regions and job types. The setting allows improving upon past approaches based on the comparison of employment rates of children below and above the minimum age. Precisely, we observe 14-year old children the year after the reform and exploit discontinuous treatment depending on their birthdate (only those who turned 14 after mid-December 1998 are banned). Regression discontinuity and difference-in-discontinuity designs show no effect of the ban overall, nor a reallocation towards less visible activities, or a substitution of labor within families. Importantly, however, we find a significant drop in child labor among those with highest chances of compliance, namely children in visible activities and in regions characterized with an above-average intensity of labor inspections. We provide power calculation and extensive sensitivity checks.

中文翻译：

---

最低年龄规定和童工：来自巴西的新证据

我们建议使用自然实验提供有关最低年龄规定的新证据。1998年，宪法改革将巴西的最低工作年龄从14岁更改为16岁。这项改革是政府坚决打击童工的一系列措施的立法对口。我们记录了一个事实，即执法和合规性在不同地区和职位类型之间可能是异类的。通过比较最低年龄以上和最低年龄以下儿童的就业率，该设置可以改进过去的方法。准确地说，我们观察到改革后一年的14岁儿童，并根据其出生日期采用不连续治疗（仅​​禁止在1998年12月中旬以后年满14岁的儿童）。回归不连续性和不连续性差异设计并未显示总体禁令的影响，也没有将其重新分配给看不见的活动，或在家庭内部替代劳动。但是，重要的是，我们发现在合规率最高的人中，即从事明显活动的儿童以及劳动检查强度高于平均水平的地区中的童工，明显下降。我们提供功率计算和广泛的灵敏度检查。