Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education

Isaac Koomson and Simplice Asongu

African Development Review, 2016, vol. 28, issue 1, 104-115

Abstract: type="main" xml:lang="en">

Child labourers play an integral role in households' income diversification process by contributing to farm and non-farm incomes but policies, including that of ILO, have focused largely on eliminating child labour from the agricultural sector through education. This study sought to ascertain the relative contribution of child labourers to farm and non-farm incomes using the GLSS6 data and employed a SUR estimation that simulated, empirically, with the child's number of hours spent in school. Findings confirmed the trade-off between school hours and household farm and non-farm incomes but simulating and deriving the net effect after including child education revealed that as child labourers spend an extra hour in school, every Gh1.00 contributed to farm income is accompanied by a Gh2.12 contribution towards non-farm income. By implication, child education policy can remove child labourers from the farm but may likely result in a paradoxical effect of pushing these children into non-farm activities as they engage in them after school and during weekends. We suggest that government provides adequate remuneration for workers and lobby/bargain for comprehensive prices for agricultural products (internationally) so that households do not use children as instruments to diversify their income portfolios, since child labour acts as a push factor.

Date: 2016
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Working Paper: Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education (2015)
Working Paper: Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child\'s Education (2015)
Working Paper: Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education (2015)
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