Child Schooling and Child Work in the Presence of a Partial Education Subsidy
Could a partial subsidy for child education increase children's participation in paid work? In contrast to much of the theoretical and empirical child labor literature, this paper shows that child work and school participation can be complements under certain conditions. Using data from the randomized evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program in the Philippines, the analysis finds that some children, who were in neither school nor work before the program, increased participation in school and work-for-pay after the program. Earlier cash transfer programs, notably those in Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador, increased school attendance while reducing child labor. Those programs fully offset schooling costs, while the transfers under the Philippine transfers fall short of the full costs of schooling for a typical child. As a result, some beneficiary children from poor Philippine households increased work to support their schooling. The additional earnings from this work represent a substantive share of the shortfall in the schooling costs net of transfer. The paper rules out several potential alternative explanations for the increase in child labor, including changes in household productive activities, adult labor supply, and household expenditure patterns that, in principle, can arise after a cash transfer and may also affect the supply of or demand for child labor.
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017-09
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Subjects: | SUBSIDIES, EDUCATION, CASH TRANSFERS, CHILD LABOR, SCHOOLING COSTS, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/501961504719564270/Child-schooling-and-child-work-in-the-presence-of-a-partial-education-subsidy https://hdl.handle.net/10986/28359 |
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Summary: | Could a partial subsidy for child
education increase children's participation in paid
work? In contrast to much of the theoretical and empirical
child labor literature, this paper shows that child work and
school participation can be complements under certain
conditions. Using data from the randomized evaluation of a
conditional cash transfer program in the Philippines, the
analysis finds that some children, who were in neither
school nor work before the program, increased participation
in school and work-for-pay after the program. Earlier cash
transfer programs, notably those in Mexico, Brazil, and
Ecuador, increased school attendance while reducing child
labor. Those programs fully offset schooling costs, while
the transfers under the Philippine transfers fall short of
the full costs of schooling for a typical child. As a
result, some beneficiary children from poor Philippine
households increased work to support their schooling. The
additional earnings from this work represent a substantive
share of the shortfall in the schooling costs net of
transfer. The paper rules out several potential alternative
explanations for the increase in child labor, including
changes in household productive activities, adult labor
supply, and household expenditure patterns that, in
principle, can arise after a cash transfer and may also
affect the supply of or demand for child labor. |
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