The Education, Labour Market and Health Consequences of Child Labour

31 Pages Posted: 20 Jul 2004

See all articles by Kathleen Beegle

Kathleen Beegle

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Rajeev H. Dehejia

New York University (NYU) - Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); CESifo

Roberta Gatti

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Date Written: May 2004

Abstract

Though there is a large literature on the determinants of child labour and many initiatives aimed at combating this phenomenon, there is limited evidence on the consequences of child labour for socioeconomic outcomes such as education, occupational choice, wages, and health. Using panel data from Vietnam and an instrumental variables strategy, we evaluate the effect of child labour participation on outcomes over a five-year horizon. We find significant negative impacts of child labour on subsequent school participation and educational attainment. On the other hand, we find that those who worked as children are likely to earn a higher wage as young adults. This effect more than fully offsets the foregone earnings due to reduced schooling, particularly for girls. We find no significant effects of child labour on several indicators of health. This evidence in part accounts for why child labour is such a pervasive phenomenon and suggests that the case against child labour requires both future increases in the returns to schooling (i.e., beyond the five year horizon encompassed by our data set) and that parents are able to borrow (or internally fund) the investment in schooling.

Keywords: Child labour, returns to education, health

JEL Classification: I21, J22, J24

Suggested Citation

Beegle, Kathleen and Dehejia, Rajeev H. and Gatti, Roberta, The Education, Labour Market and Health Consequences of Child Labour (May 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=566842

Kathleen Beegle (Contact Author)

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/kbeegle

Rajeev H. Dehejia

New York University (NYU) - Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://users.nber.org/~rdehejia/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://users.nber.org/~rdehejia/

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

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CESifo ( email )

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Germany

Roberta Gatti

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

1818 H. Street, N.W.
MSN3-311
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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