Child Labour in Developing Countries: The Role of Education, Poverty and Birth Order

This paper examines the role of education, poverty and birth order with regard to child labour in developing countries. The higher the cost of education is, compared to benefit, the higher is the likelihood of a child being sent to work. Poor school facilities and poor quality of education ensure higher incidence of child labour. However, easy access to credit market, income transfer programmes to households and law of compulsory schooling affect child labour negatively. The link between poverty and child labour is inconclusive, though a positive relationship between these two variables is prevalent. The evidence also notes that older children are more likely to be sent to work than their younger siblings, though a few exceptions also exist in the literature. Girls’ work participation is higher than the boys’ work participation, and girls are more likely to participate in housework, while boys are more likely to participate in market work.