Poverty Alleviation and Child Labor
Does child labor decrease as household income rises? This question has important implications for the design of policy on child labor. This paper focuses on a program of unconditional cash transfers in Ecuador. It argues that the effect of a small...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/08/9798706/poverty-alleviation-child-labor http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6777 |
| Summary: | Does child labor decrease as household
income rises? This question has important implications for
the design of policy on child labor. This paper focuses on a
program of unconditional cash transfers in Ecuador. It
argues that the effect of a small increase in household
income on child labor should be concentrated among children
most vulnerable to transitioning from schooling to work. The
paper finds support for this hypothesis. Cash transfers have
small effects on child time allocation at peak school
attendance ages and among children already out of school at
baseline, but have large impacts at ages and in groups most
likely to leave school and start work. Additional income is
associated with a decline in paid work that takes place away
from the child's home. Declines in work for pay are
associated with increases in school enrollment, especially
for girls. Increases in schooling are matched by an increase
in education expenditures that appears to absorb most of the
cash transfer. However, total household expenditures do not
increase with the transfer and appear to fall in households
most impacted by the transfer because of the decline in
child labor. |
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