Child labor and school enrollment in Thailand in the 1990s

This report examines the situation of child labor in Thailand in the last decade. It finds that child labor has decreased significantly, for example, the labor force participation rates of those aged 13-14 years has almost halved since 1990. Despite this decline, 1.6 million children below the age of 16 are out of school of whom 1.2 million are between 12 and 14 years. Most of them are from poor families. Many face harsh conditions of employment that adversely affect their physical and mental development and can lock them into poverty in the future thus perpetuating a vicious cycle. Empirical analysis suggests that at younger ages (below 14) direct education costs deter school attendance. As the child gets older, income effects become more important determinants of child labor than the costs of education. This report examines what incentives the household can be provided with to keep children in school, the role of public education, and what can be done in the labor market through additional measures for those children who, notwithstanding the previous two interventions, will continue to be at work. Education subsidies are found to be justifiedfrom a social policy point of view: indeed there is a failure in the market for education/child labor. However, subsidies alone will not reduce child labor/increase education by much. Rather, public support to basic education should continue along with policies that enhance growth and reduce poverty.