The Joint Estimation of Child Participation in Schooling and Employement: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents (original) (raw)
Related papers
Oxford Development Studies, 2002
This paper uses data from Peru, Pakistan and Ghana to simultaneously analyse child labour and child schooling, and compares them between these countries .We use a multinomial logit estimation procedure that analyses the participation and non participation of children in schooling and in employment and, in particular, allows the possibility that a child combines schooling with employment or does neither. We also use an ordered probit estimation procedure based on a ranking of the various child schooling/employment/non schooling/non employment outcomes. The results point to both similarities and striking dissimilarities in the nature of child labour and child schooling between the chosen countries. For example, in Pakistan, but not in Peru, the girl child's ordering of schooling/employment outcomes shows her at a position of extreme disadvantage. Household poverty discourages a child from achieving superior outcomes, but the effect varies markedly across the three countries.
Child Labor and Schooling Decisions in Urban and Rural Areas: Cross-Country Evidence
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2003
Child labor is widespread in developing countries, but its causes are debatable. Poverty is considered the primary reason, but many theoretical and empirical analyses show that other factors, such as access to credit, school quality and labor market opportunities, play equal or even greater roles in child labor and schooling decisions. This study surveys the existing literature and, taking into account urban-rural divides, aims to shed light on the debate with empirical evidence from Nepal, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We find that while there is strong evidence that poverty drives child labor in rural areas, there is a general lack of support for poverty hypothesis in urban areas. This suggests that policies such as a ban on child labor in rural areas could have an adverse effect, as child labor decisions are more likely a response to poverty and subsistence requirements. Similarly improving access to credit has greater potential for alleviating child labor and enhancing school enrollment in rural than urban areas, particularly in Nepal and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the availability of alternative childcare options appears to considerably decrease child labor and create conditions for higher school attendance rates in urban than rural areas. Finally, the evidence from all three countries indicates that efforts to bolster adult educational levels and wages will help curb the prevalence and intensity of child labor and improve the likelihood that children stay in school.
Child labor and schooling decisions in urban and rural areas: comparative evidence from
2005
Child labor is widespread in developing countries, but its causes are debatable. Poverty is considered the primary reason, but many theoretical and empirical analyses show that other factors, such as access to credit, school quality and labor market opportunities, play equal or even greater roles in child labor and schooling decisions. This study surveys the existing literature and, taking into account urban-rural divides, aims to shed light on the debate with empirical evidence from Nepal, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We find that while there is strong evidence that poverty drives child labor in rural areas, there is a general lack of support for poverty hypothesis in urban areas. This suggests that policies such as a ban on child labor in rural areas could have an adverse effect, as child labor decisions are more likely a response to poverty and subsistence requirements. Similarly improving access to credit has greater potential for alleviating child labor and enhancing school enrollment in rural than urban areas, particularly in Nepal and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the availability of alternative childcare options appears to considerably decrease child labor and create conditions for higher school attendance rates in urban than rural areas. Finally, the evidence from all three countries indicates that efforts to bolster adult educational levels and wages will help curb the prevalence and intensity of child labor and improve the likelihood that children stay in school.
Child Labor and Schooling Decisions in Urban and Rural Areas
2003
Child labor is widespread in developing countries, but its causes are debatable. Poverty is considered the primary reason, but many theoretical and empirical analyses show that other factors, such as access to credit, school quality and labor market opportunities, play equal or even greater roles in child labor and schooling decisions. This study surveys the existing literature and, taking into account urban-rural divides, aims to shed light on the debate with empirical evidence from Nepal, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We find that while there is strong evidence that poverty drives child labor in rural areas, there is a general lack of support for poverty hypothesis in urban areas. This suggests that policies such as a ban on child labor in rural areas could have an adverse effect, as child labor decisions are more likely a response to poverty and subsistence requirements. Similarly improving access to credit has greater potential for alleviating child labor and enhancing school enrollment in rural than urban areas, particularly in Nepal and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the availability of alternative childcare options appears to considerably decrease child labor and create conditions for higher school attendance rates in urban than rural areas. Finally, the evidence from all three countries indicates that efforts to bolster adult educational levels and wages will help curb the prevalence and intensity of child labor and improve the likelihood that children stay in school.
World Development, 2005
Child labor is widespread in developing countries, but its causes are debatable. Poverty is considered the primary reason, but many theoretical and empirical analyses show that other factors, such as access to credit, school quality and labor market opportunities, play equal or even greater roles in child labor and schooling decisions. This study surveys the existing literature and, taking into account urban-rural divides, aims to shed light on the debate with empirical evidence from Nepal, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We find that while there is strong evidence that poverty drives child labor in rural areas, there is a general lack of support for poverty hypothesis in urban areas. This suggests that policies such as a ban on child labor in rural areas could have an adverse effect, as child labor decisions are more likely a response to poverty and subsistence requirements. Similarly improving access to credit has greater potential for alleviating child labor and enhancing school enrollment in rural than urban areas, particularly in Nepal and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the availability of alternative childcare options appears to considerably decrease child labor and create conditions for higher school attendance rates in urban than rural areas. Finally, the evidence from all three countries indicates that efforts to bolster adult educational levels and wages will help curb the prevalence and intensity of child labor and improve the likelihood that children stay in school.
Child Labour and Child Schooling in South Asia: A Cross Country Study of their Determinants
This study uses Nepalese data to estimate the impact of individual, household and cluster/community level variables on child labour and child schooling. The principal estimates are, then, compared with those from Bangladesh and Pakistan. The exercise is designed to identify effective policy instruments that could influence child labour and child schooling in South Asia. The results show that the impact of a variable on a child's education/employment is, often, highly sensitive to the specification in the estimation and to the country considered. There are, however some results that are fairly robust. For example, in both Nepal and Pakistan, inequality has a strong U shaped impact on both child labour participation rates and child labour hours, thus, pointing to high inequality as a significant cause of child labour. In contrast, household poverty has only a weak link with child labour, though it seems to be more important in the context of child schooling. The current school attendance by a child has a large, negative impact on her labour hours, thus, pointing to compulsory schooling as an effective instrument in reducing child labour. Other potentially useful instruments include adult education levels, improvements in the schooling infrastructure, and the provision of amenities such as water and electricity in the villages.
The World Bank Economic Review, 2000
Using data from Peru and Pakistan, this article tests two hypotheses: there is a positive association between hours of child labor and poverty, and there is a negative association between child schooling and poverty. Both of these hypotheses are confirmed by the Pakistani data, but not by the Peruvian data. The reduction in poverty rates due to income from children's labor is greater in Pakistan than in Peru. The nature of interaction between adult and child labor markets varies with the gender of the child and the adult. In Peru rising men's wages significantly reduce the labor hours of girls, whereas in Pakistan there is a strong complementarity between women's and girls' labor markets. Both data sets agree on the positive role that increasing adult education can play in improving child welfare. In recent years academics, public officials, and the media have shown a growing interest in child labor. Although the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) estimates of labor force participation rates for children ages 10-14 years show a declining trend (ILO 1996a), in absolute terms the size of the child labor force is and will continue to be large enough to be of serious concern. According to the International Labour Organisation, in 1990 almost 79 million children between 5 and 14 years of age around the world were working full time (see Ashagrie 1993:16). Ashagrie (1993) was the first person to compile an international data set on child labor. His figure on the size of the child labor force (79 million) has since been revised upward to 120 million children (ILO 1996b and Ashagrie 1998). Including part-time workers as well, this estimate rises to 250 million. Although the estimate of the child labor force varies depending on how we define work, how we define a child, and how we collect data, few would disagree that child labor is a problem of gigantic proportions. The universal perception of child labor as a problem stems from the widespread belief that employment is destructive to children's intellectual and physical development, especially that of Ranjan Ray is with tbe School of Economics at the University of Tasmania. His e-mail address is ranjan.rayQutas.ediuiu. Part of this research was carried out during the author's study leave at Cornell University. The research was sponsored by the World Bank project "Intrahousehold Dedsionmaking, Literacy, and Child Labor.* The author is grateful to Kaushik Basu for comments and suggestions and to Geoffrey Lancaster for skillful and painstaking research assistance. He also acknowledges helpful comments from the editor and the anonymous referees on an earlier version of this article.
Nature and Trade-off between Child Labour and Child Schooling in Rural Ethiopia
2008
This paper examines determinants of work participation and school attendance for children aged 7-15 using survey data from rural Ethiopia. To this effect, a bivariate probit model that addresses the interrelatedness of the two decisions is employed. Given the agrarian nature of the economy, especial focus is given to child labour on family farms and within the household. The trade-off between child labour and educational attainment is also analysed by estimating an equation for age-adjusted educational attainment of children. Male children are found to be more likely to attend school than female children implying gender bias. There is also some 'specialization' in child labour with females having a higher likelihood and intensity of participation in domestic chores while males having a higher likelihood as well as intensity of participation in market work. Besides, while male children are more likely to combine schooling with market work, their female counterparts are more l...
The Impact of Public School Enrolment on Child Labor in Pakistan
This paper investigates the causal impact of public school enrolment on child labor. Our main hypothesis is as follows: Is school enrolment a substitute for child labor? Recognizing that schooling and work choices are jointly determined by parents in a utility maximizing framework, the study applies an instrumental variable solution to the problem of simultaneity. This approach entails using the receipt of free textbooks and access to a public primary facility as instruments for public school enrolment. Using data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for 2007/08, our working sample consists of children between 5 and 14 years of age, which makes up 25 percent of the surveyed population. The results suggest that public school enrolment can be used as a substitute for child labor. On average, a 1 percentage point increase in a household's enrolment ratio has the potential to reduce the number of hours of paid labor by almost 5 percentage points, ceteris paribus. This substitutability is highest among poor, urban, male children. Moreover, the incidence of child labor is higher among larger poor families.