Effect of ethnic diversity on child labor: Empirical evidence from Ghana

Opoku Adabor and Enock Kojo Ayesu

Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 32, issue 6, 7246-7261

Abstract: One of the persistent global problems today is child labor with the current estimates indicating that 160 million children were in child labor as at the beginning of 2020. To reduce child labor, it is important to unearth the factors that influence it for policy implementation. We contribute to the literature and policy by examining the impact of ethnic diversity on child labor, while considering the mediating effects of informal work and household poverty. Using ethnic fractionalization and polarization indexes, we find that a unit increase in ethnic diversity is associated with an increase in child labor. Gender‐wise, we find the effect to be bigger for male child workers. Based on location, we find that the effect is pronounced for working children living in rural areas. Also, our mediation analysis shows that informal work, and household poverty are the pathways through which ethnic diversity increases child labor.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3092

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:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:6:p:7246-7261

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().