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Income Contributions of Child Work in Rural Ethiopia

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  • John Cockburn

Abstract

The income contribution of child work is undoubtedly a key factor influencing child work and schooling decisions. Yet, few studies have attempted to directly measure this contribution. This is particularly the case for work performed on the household farm, as is the case for the vast majority of child workers, rather than for wages. In this study, we estimate a household income function with child labour included as an input. Results using a variety of functional forms and alternative child labour variables are compared. We conclude that children and adults are perfect labour substitutes and that the marginal productivity of children is roughly one-third to one-half that of male adults. The average contribution of each working child is estimated at 4 to 7% of household income, although there is substantial variation with contributions ranging up to 50%. These results underline the dependency of poor households on child work for survival.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Development and Comp Systems with number 0409016.

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Length: 68 pages
Date of creation: 15 Sep 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0409016

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 68
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Web page: http://128.118.178.162

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Keywords: child labour; schooling; Ethiopia; household production;

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Cited by:
  1. Lei Pan, 2007. "Risk Pooling through Transfers in Rural Ethiopia," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-014/2, Tinbergen Institute, revised 28 Sep 2007.
  2. L.Guarcello & S.Lyon & F.Rosati, 2006. "The Twin Challenges of Child labour and Youth Employment in Ethiopia," UCW Working Paper 18, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Programme).
  3. Nicola Jones & Andy Sumner, 2009. "Does Mixed Methods Research Matter to Understanding Childhood Well-Being?," Social Indicators Research, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 33-50, January.

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