Do school feeding programmes reduce child labour? Evidence from Liberia

Dadie Dago () and Thierry Yogo
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Dadie Dago: UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement
Thierry Yogo: World Bank Group

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Abstract: Though there is comprehensive literature on the effectiveness of school feeding in increasing school enrollment and school attendance, little is known about its potential effect on child labor. This paper takes advantage of the 2007 Core Welfare Questionnaire Indicator survey conducted between August and September 2007 in Liberia to assess the causal impact of the School Feeding Programme (SFP) on child labour. Using the propensity score-matching technique, we find that the SFP leads to a statistically significant decrease in child labour estimated at between 14 and 17%. This result is robust to the use of different matching techniques and the choice of covariates used in the estimation of the propensity score. In addition, the analysis reveals that the SFP is mainly effective in reducing child labour for male children, children living in war-displaced households, and children living in households in which the head is literate. Overall, the study shows that the detrimental effect of conflict on child labor can be mitigated by school feeding interventions.

Keywords: School feeding programmes (SFP); Child labour; Propensity score matching (PSM); Liberia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Published in The Journal of Development Studies, 2022, 58 (11), pp.2222-2236. ⟨10.1080/00220388.2022.2069493⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03682878

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2022.2069493

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