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The Effect of Food Price Changes on Child Labor: Evidence from Uganda

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  • Raymond B. Frempong
  • David Stadelmann

Abstract

A majority of people in developing countries spend about 60 percent of their income on food, even though most of them are farmers. Hence, a change in food prices affects both their revenue as well as expenditure, and thereby their labor market decisions. Using the Uganda National Panel Survey and monthly regional food prices, this paper examines the effect of exogenous changes in food prices on child labor. The econometric evidence shows that an increase in food prices leads to an increase in the probability and intensity of child labor. We find the effect of food price increases to be smaller among landowning households, which is consistent with the view that landowning households can better compensate for price shocks. The results suggest that periodic shocks in food prices may have longer lasting effects on human capital development and poverty in developing countries.

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  • Raymond B. Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2017. "The Effect of Food Price Changes on Child Labor: Evidence from Uganda," CREMA Working Paper Series 2017-06, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2017-06
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    2. Ajefu, Joseph B. & Massacky, Falecia, 2023. "Mobile money, child labour and school enrolment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    3. Sriroop Chaudhuri & Mimi Roy & Louis M. McDonald & Yves Emendack, 2021. "Coping Behaviours and the concept of Time Poverty: a review of perceived social and health outcomes of food insecurity on women and children," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1049-1068, August.
    4. Raymond Boadi Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2021. "Risk preference and child labor: Econometric evidence," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 878-894, May.
    5. Raymond Boadi Frempong, 2023. "Do subsidies on seed and fertilizer lead to child labour? Evidence from Malawi," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(2), March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Development; Child labor; Exogenous shock; Food prices;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

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