Education and Work Experiences of 6-14 Year-Old Children in Turkey

This paper investigates the factors that influence the schooling and work status of 6-14 year-old children at the household level, using micro data from the October 1994 round of Turkey's Labor Force Survey. This data set has detailed information on 10,327 children in the 6-14 age group, and on 5,839 households that they belong to. According to the raw data, 95 percent of children in the 6-11 age group, and 75 percent of the children in the 12-14 age group were attending school. Seven percent of the children were engaged in market work, while 25 percent participated in household chores. Evidently a large segment of children contribute their time to their household's economic activities not through market work but indirectly, by freeing up time for other members of the household. Probit estimates show that the likelihood of staying in school increases with the educational attainment of the household head (almost always a male) and the spouse (when present, always a female). Females, and children residing in rural areas, emerge as especially disadvantaged groups in terms of schooling attainment. Relative to illiterate parents, literate parents are less likely to engage their children in market work. As parental levels of educational attainment increase beyond primary (5 years) and middle school (8 years), significant decreases in the likelihood of child employment are seen. Among parents who opt for engaging their children in some form of work, the choice favors house work in the case of daughters and market work in the case of sons.