Child labor and schooling: consequences of child work on educational attainment

Abstract

This thesis attempts to extend the very small previous research on child labor and school achievement. It also seeks to answer the questions regarding why working as a child, even though it may not compete with time in school, is detrimental to a child's human capital accumulation and income potential as an adult. Acquiring a large base of human capital in school is key to obtain and maintain employment as an adult and allows for a movement away from poverty. Not many studies have looked at the most significant measure of cognitive ability-learning achievement. The results from this study support the results from previous research. Working while in school, even very few hours per day, reduces learning and therefore also cognitive ability. Moreover, the results point at the endogenous relationship between child labor and schooling and suggest that because households make joint decisions in allocating children's time to working and schooling, modeling child labor endogenously generates more truthful indications of the effect of child labor on school performance.