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Environmental Resource Collection versus Children’s Schooling: Evidence from Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Bahre Gebru

    (Department of Economics, College of Business and Economics, Aksum University, Aksum)

  • Sosina Bezu

    (School of Economics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa)

Abstract

Previous studies in Ethiopia treat child labour and schooling in a broader sense without much attention to the kind of labor they are engaged in. This paper distinctively examines the adverse effect of natural resources scarcity on children’s schooling and the possible gender bias against girls’ schooling due to resource collection work. It uses cross sectional data of 316 children aging 7 to 18 years collected from 120 rural households of Enderta and Hintalo Wajerat woredas in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. The two-stage conditional maximum likelihood (2SCML) estimation technique is employed to take care of endogeneity between schooling and collection intensity decisions. The results revealed that a 50 percent increase in collection intensity reduces the likelihood of child schooling by approximately 12 percent. Even though girls more often participate on resource gathering tasks, we find no evidence of gender based difference against girls’ schooling due to resource collection intensity. Timely collection of fodder resources from cultivated land—soon enough so amount and quality will not deteriorate, planting fodder-rich tree species, promoting labor sharing arrangements, and maintenance of the non- perating constructed water sources can reduce the time spent on environmental resources collection and improve the likelihood of schooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahre Gebru & Sosina Bezu, 2012. "Environmental Resource Collection versus Children’s Schooling: Evidence from Tigray, Northern Ethiopia," Working Papers 007, Policy Studies Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:etd:wpaper:007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Birouke Tefera & Frehiwot Worku & Zewdu Ayalew, 2012. "Implications of Oil Price Shocks and Subsidizing Oil Prices to the Ethiopian Economy: A CGE Analysis," Working Papers 008, Policy Studies Institute.

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