Abstract:
This paper investigates the causal impact of public school enrolment on
child labor. Our main hypothesis is as follows: Is school enrolment a substitute for
child labor? Recognizing that schooling and work choices are jointly determined by
parents in a utility maximizing framework, the study applies an instrumental
variable solution to the problem of simultaneity. This approach entails using the
receipt of free textbooks and access to a public primary facility as instruments for
public school enrolment. Using data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
for 2007/08, our working sample consists of children between 5 and 14 years of
age, which makes up 25 percent of the surveyed population. The results suggest
that public school enrolment can be used as a substitute for child labor. On
average, a 1 percentage point increase in a household’s enrolment ratio has the
potential to reduce the number of hours of paid labor by almost 5 percentage points,
ceteris paribus. This substitutability is highest among poor, urban, male children.
Moreover, the incidence of child labor is higher among larger poor families.
