Child labour and child schooling in South Asia: a cross country study of their determinants

Abstract

This study uses Nepalese data to estimate the impact of individual, household andcluster/community level variables on child labour and child schooling. The principal estimates are, then, compared with those from Bangladesh and Pakistan. The exercise is designed to identify effective policy instruments that could influence child labour and child schooling in South Asia. The results show that the impact of a variable on a child's education/employment is, often, highly sensitive to the specification in the estimation and to the country considered. There are, however some results that are fairlyrobust. For example, in both Nepal and Pakistan, inequality has a strong U shaped impact on both child labour participation rates and child labour hours, thus, pointing tohigh inequality as a significant cause of child labour. In contrast, household poverty hasonly a weak link with child labour, though it seems to be more important in the contextof child schooling. The current school attendance by a child has a large, negative impacton her labour hours, thus, pointing to compulsory schooling as an effective instrumentin reducing child labour. Other potentially useful instruments include adult education levels, improvements in the schooling infrastructure, and the provision of amenities such as water and electricity in the villages. Show more