Why Children Work, Attend School, or Stay Idle: The Roles of Ability and Household Wealth

Marigee P. Bacolod and Priya Ranjan
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Priyaranjan Jha

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2008, vol. 56, issue 4, 791-828

Abstract: This paper offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of child labor, schooling, and idleness (neither work nor school), with particular emphasis on the roles of child ability and household wealth in determining these decisions. We show theoretically that “idleness” may be chosen optimally by low-income households whose child is of low ability. Using a rich data set from the Philippines, we find that while other factors—including mother’s labor supply, the presence of a family business, and access to good school quality—contribute to these decisions, child ability and household wealth are the most important determinants of child idleness and the use of child labor. An implication of our findings is that any policy aiming to reduce child labor and increase child schooling should also target improvements in child ability and cognitive development through investments in the nutrition and health of poor children.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/588165 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:v:56:y:2008:p:791-828

DOI: 10.1086/588165

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development and Cultural Change from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().