IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v575y2001i1p71-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Child Labor in Africa: A Comparative Study

Author

Listed:
  • Sudharshan Canagarajah

    (World Bank)

  • Helena Skyt Nielsen

    (Aarhus School of Business in Denmark)

Abstract

This article analyzes the determinants of child labor in Africa as inferred from recent empirical studies. The empirical analysis is based on five country studies undertaken in three different African countries, namely, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Zambia. Some support is found for the popular belief of poverty as a determinant of child labor; however, other determinants are of similar importance. Among school costs, transportation costs have the greatest effect on child labor and school attendance, whereas the hypothesis of imperfect capital markets and that of household composition generally find some support.

Suggested Citation

  • Sudharshan Canagarajah & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2001. "Child Labor in Africa: A Comparative Study," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 575(1), pages 71-91, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:575:y:2001:i:1:p:71-91
    DOI: 10.1177/000271620157500105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271620157500105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271620157500105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lavy, Victor, 1996. "School supply constraints and children's educational outcomes in rural Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 291-314, December.
    2. Peter Jensen & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 1997. "Child labour or school attendance? Evidence from Zambia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(4), pages 407-424.
    3. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1980. "Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model: The Use of Twins as a Natural Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 227-240, January.
    4. Glewwe, Paul, 1996. "The relevance of standard estimates of rates of return to schooling for education policy: A critical assessment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 267-290, December.
    5. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1977. "Farm-Family Schooling Decisions: Determinants of the Quantity and Quality of Education in Agricultural Populations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(1), pages 71-91.
    6. Gary S. Becker & H. Gregg Lewis, 1974. "Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 81-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Grootaert, Christiaan & Kanbur, Ravi, 1995. "Child labor : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1454, The World Bank.
    8. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 1997. "Family size, schooling and child labor in Peru - An empirical analysis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(4), pages 387-405.
    9. Parsons, Donald O & Goldin, Claudia, 1989. "Parental Altruism and Self-Interest: Child Labor among Late Nineteenth-Century American Families," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 637-659, October.
    10. Gertler, Paul & Glewwe, Paul, 1990. "The willingness to pay for education in developing countries : Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 251-275, August.
    11. Yoram Ben-Porath, 1967. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 352-352.
    12. Nielsen, H.S., 1998. "Child Labor and School Attendance: Two Joint Decisions," Papers 98-15, Centre for Labour Market and Social Research, Danmark-.
    13. Paul Glewwe & Hanan Jacoby, 1994. "Student Achievement and Schooling Choice in Low-Income Countries: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(3), pages 843-864.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Polyxeni Kechagia & Theodore Metaxas, 2023. "Capital Inflows and Working Children in Developing Countries: An Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M Stern, 2001. "Child Labor: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," Working Papers 474, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    2. Sonia Bhalotra, 2007. "Is Child Work Necessary?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(1), pages 29-55, February.
    3. Edmonds, Eric V., 2008. "Child Labor," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 57, pages 3607-3709, Elsevier.
    4. Anu Rammohan, 2000. "The Interaction of Child-labour and Schooling in Developing Countries: A Theoretical Perspective," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 85-99, December.
    5. Admassie, A. & Bedi, A.S., 2003. "Attending school : two 'Rs' and child work in rural Ethiopia," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19146, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    6. Del Carpio, Ximena V., 2008. "Does child labor always decrease with income ? an evaluation in the context of a development program in Nicaragua," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4694, The World Bank.
    7. Orazem, Peter F. & King, Elizabeth M., 2008. "Schooling in Developing Countries: The Roles of Supply, Demand and Government Policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 55, pages 3475-3559, Elsevier.
    8. Yacouba Diallo, 2001. "Les déterminants du travail des enfants en Côte d'Ivoire," Documents de travail 55, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    9. Del Carpio, Ximena V. & Loayza, Norman V. & Wada, Tomoko, 2016. "The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on the Amount and Type of Child Labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 33-47.
    10. Margaret E. Grosh & Paul Glewwe, 1998. "Data Watch: The World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study Household Surveys," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 187-196, Winter.
    11. Kitaura, Koji, 2009. "Child labor, education aid, and economic growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 614-620, December.
    12. Moussa Keita, 2014. "Pauvreté et arbitrage entre scolarisation et travail des enfants au Mali," Working Papers halshs-01064821, HAL.
    13. Vasilaky, Kathryn, 2011. "The effects of school quality on fertility in a transition economy," MPRA Paper 38965, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Camargo, Braz & Stein, Guilherme, 2022. "Credit constraints and human capital policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    15. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 2008. "Le travail des enfants et la pauvreté en Afrique : un réexamen appliqué au Burkina Faso," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(5), pages 47-65.
    16. Del Carpio, Ximena V. & Loayza, Norman V., 2012. "The impact of wealth on the amount and quality of child labor," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5959, The World Bank.
    17. Krisztina Kis-Katos, 2012. "Gender differences in work-schooling decisions in rural North India," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 491-519, December.
    18. Grootaert, Christiaan, 1998. "Child labor in Cote d'Ivoire: incidence and determinants," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1905, The World Bank.
    19. W. Nabiddo & B.L. Yawe & F. Wasswa, 2022. "Education attainment and household education expenditure in Uganda: An empirical investigation," Journal of Economic Policy and Management Issues, JEPMI, vol. 1(1), pages 21-49.
    20. VERHEYDEN Bertrand & FAYE Ousmane, 2011. "Fertility and Child Occupation: Theory and Evidence from Senegal," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-59, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:575:y:2001:i:1:p:71-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.