Poverty Alleviation and Child Labor / Eric V. Edmonds, Norbert Schady.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edmonds, Eric V.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Schady, Norbert, 1967-

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w15345.

NBER working paper series no. w15345

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2009.

Summary:

How important are subsistence concerns in a family's decision to send a child to work? We consider this question in Ecuador, where poor families are selected at random to receive a cash transfer that is equivalent to 7 percent of monthly expenditures. Winning the cash transfer lottery is associated with a decline in work for pay away from the child's home. The cash transfer is greater than the rise in schooling costs that comes with the end of primary school, but it is less than 20 percent of the income paid to child laborers in the labor market. Despite being less than foregone earnings, poor families seem to use the lottery award to delay the child's entry into paid employment and protect the child's schooling status. Schooling expenditures rise with the lottery, but total expenditures in the household decline relative to the control population because of foregone child labor earnings.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2009.