Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Child labour, education, participation and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa: an empirical study |
| Author: | Mukherjee, Jaydeep |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Periodical: | Research Review (ISSN 0855-4412) |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 53-70 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
| Subjects: | child labour schooling economic development Economics, Commerce Africa--Economic conditions education |
| Abstract: | The ILO publication on Global Child Labour Trends 2000 to 2004 exhibited an increase in the number of child workers in Sub-Saharan Africa from 48.0 million to 49.3 million over the period from 2000 to 2004. This calls for serious introspection. The present study examines the interaction between child labour, primary school participation and per capita economic growth for Sub-Saharan Africa in a holistic framework using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model and dummy variables to capture the regional and income classifications. The results show that per capita GDP growth rate, public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP, net primary enrollment ratio and percentage of children reaching grade 5 in school are inversely related with the incidence of children's labour force participation, while total fertility rate which reflects population growth, is positively related with child labour. Finally, that child labour is a serious impediment for improved economic performance of the region is reaffirmed from the fact that child labour participation has a negative effect on per capita GDP growth rate for the region as a whole and individually for each of the Southern, Western and Middle African countries. The results suggest that, since the problem across Sub-Saharan Africa is closely linked to the region's poverty, it can only be reduced with higher balanced economic growth that increases family incomes and children's educational opportunities. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |