2002 Reports
Do households resort to child labor to cope with income shocks?
Using four rounds of panel household data from the Kagera region of Tanzania, we show that transitory income shocks - measured by the value of crop lost by farming households - lead to significantly increased child labor. A one standard deviation increase in the shock is associated with a 10% increase in mean child working hours. Moreover, we find that households with collateralizable assets - which we interpret as a proxy for access to credit - are better able to offset the effects of income shocks. This evidence supports the view that credit market imperfections are an important determinant of child labor.
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More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Economics
- Publisher
- Department of Economics, Columbia University
- Series
- Department of Economics Discussion Papers, 0203-12
- Published Here
- March 24, 2011
Notes
December 2002