Factors Explaining Child Work and Education in Myanmar

Child workers constitute a significant share of the Myanmar labor force, which hastranslated into an unprotected child labor market. Given the prevalence of issues surrounding school enrollment anddropout rates, this paper investigates the relationship between child work and education. Using data from the 2015Labor Force survey, it studies what factors explain child work and how this can in turn affect schooling outcomes. Thestudy differentiates between children’s household chores and wage work. To understand if these two types of activitiesaffect schooling differently, the paper explores if and how work intensity (number of hours worked) plays a role. Thefindings show that child work has a negative correlation with school enrollment and attendance, to differing degreesdepending on the type of work and work intensity, regardless of gender. Overall, wage work is negatively correlated withenrollment and attendance disproportionately more than household chores. Work intensity seems to play a smallerrole, but it still matters when looking at girls’ participation in household chores. Working long hours doesnot seem to have a link with the likelihood of being enrolled and attending school, although it could affectlearning outcomes as it reduces the amount of time dedicated to homework and study. However, the data source being someyears old, the analysis may not fully reflect the most recent economic and social developments and conditions in Myanmar.