The Role of Poverty and Community Norms in Child Labor and Schooling Decisions

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The Role of Poverty and Community Norms in Child Labor and Schooling Decisions

Author Info

Strulik, Holger

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Holger Strulik

Abstract

Household poverty is a powerful motive for child labor and working frequently comes at the expense of schooling for children. Accounting for these natural links we investigate whether and when there is an additional role for community norms and how the social evaluation of schooling evolves over time. The proposed model provides an explanation for why equally poor villages or regions display different attitudes towards schooling and why children who are not working are not sent to school either but remain idle instead. The conditions for a successful implementation of a half-day school vs. a full-day school are investigated. An extension of the model explores how an education contingent subsidy paid to the poorest families of a community manages to initiate a bandwagon effect towards an equilibrium where all children are sent to school.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät in its series Diskussionspapiere der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Hannover with number dp-383.

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Length: 31 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2008
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Handle: RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-383

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2008-01-19 (All new papers)
NEP-DEV-2008-01-19 (Development)
NEP-EDU-2008-01-19 (Education)
NEP-HRM-2008-01-19 (Human Capital & Human Resource Management)
NEP-SOC-2008-01-19 (Social Norms & Social Capital)

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