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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Child Work and Schooling: The Role of Household Asset Profiles and Poverty in Rural Ethiopia
Authors:Cockburn, JohnISNI
Dostie, Benoit
Year:2007
Periodical:Journal of African Economies
Volume:16
Issue:4
Period:August
Pages:519-563
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:child labour
household income
rural households
Economics and Trade
Labor and Employment
Education and Oral Traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/4/519.full.pdf
Abstract:Child labour is commonly associated with poverty. However, the empirical evidence for this link is weak. The authors extend the theoretical and empirical framework to better address demand determinants for child labour. Using rural Ethiopia as a case study, they argue that this demand is household-specific given that in Ethiopia child labour is overwhelmingly performed for the child's own household in the absence of a smoothly functioning child labour market. A simple agricultural household model with a missing labour market shows that household asset portfolios and household composition are the principal determinants of child labour demand. Multinomial logit, mixed logit and simultaneous equation models are used to analyse child time use decisions in the context of rural Ethiopia while addressing issues of income endogeneity and the failure of the independence of irrelevant alternations hypothesis. The results suggest that the demand for child labour plays a major role in child time-use decisions and that this demand varies between households according to their asset profiles and household composition. In addition, by adequately addressing the demand side, the authors actually find support for a poverty-child labour link. These results imply that in pursuing asset accumulation-based poverty alleviation policies, attention should be paid to the possibility that this will encourage households to withdraw their children from school in order to take advantage of the increased returns. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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