Exploring trends in the relationship between child labour, gender and educational achievement in Latin America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35362/rie8413987Keywords:
Child labour, gender, inequality, educational achievement, Latin AmericaAbstract
Participation in child labour, in both household and non-household activities, gender effects and low educational attainment remain challenges for countries in Latin America. Through hierarchical linear modelling of data from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this study seeks to explore the current cross-country trends in the relationship between educational attainment, child labour and gender. While non-household labour is found to have an effect, as per statistical significance and the magnitude, on educational achievement across all Latin American countries; participation in household labour is significant in only two countries (Peru and Uruguay). Girls are found to underperform compared to boys by a significant margin across Latin America. The later part of the study seeks to examine the interaction effects of gender and participation in labour activities. Results show that gender has no moderating effect, suggesting that participation in work itself or workspace (household or non-household) does not influence or contribute to gender inequality in education outcomes. The explanatory factors for gender inequality in education outcomes are potentially rooted in a different sphere of influence which needs to be deciphered through deeper empirical investigation.
Downloads
References
Ahuja, V. & Filmer, D. (1995). Educational attainment in development countries: New estimates and projections disaggregated by gender. Journal of Educational Planning and Administration X(3): 229-254
Altschul, I. (2012). Linking socioeconomic status to the academic achievement of Mexican American youth through parent involvement in education. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 3(1), 13-30.
Archer, L., & Francis, B. (2006). Understanding minority ethnic achievement: Race, gender, class and’success’. Routledge.
Arends-Kuenning, M., & Duryea, S. (2006). The effect of parental presence, parents’ education, and household headship on adolescents’ schooling and work in Latin America. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 27(2), 263-286.
Assaad, R., Levison, D., & Zibani, N. (2010). The effect of domestic work on girls’ schooling: Evidence from Egypt. Feminist Economics, 16(1), 79-128.
Bargain, O., & Boutin, D. (2017). Minimum age regulation and child labor: New evidence from Brazil
Barnard, W. M. (2004). Parent involvement in elementary school and educational attainment. Children and youth services review, 26(1), 39-62.
Barone, F. J. (1993). The effects of part-time employment on academic performance. NASSP Bulletin, 77(549), 67-73.
Basu, K. (2005). Global labour standards and local freedoms. In WIDER perspectives on global development (pp. 175-200). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Basu, K., & Tzannatos, Z. (2003). The Global Child Labor Problem: What do we know and what can we do?. The world bank economic review, 17(2), 147-173.
Basu, K., & Van, P. H. (1998). The economics of child labor. American economic review, 412-427.
Behrman, J., Duryea, S., & Székely, M. (1999). Schooling investments and aggregate conditions: A household-survey-based approach for Latin America and the Caribbean. IDB-OCE Working Paper, (407).
Boockmann, B. (2010). The effect of ilo minimum age conventions on child labor and school attendance: Evidence from aggregate and individual-level data. World Development, 38(5), 679-692.
Bossuyt, N., Gadeyne, S., Deboosere, P., & Van Oyen, H. (2004). Socio-economic inequalities in health expectancy in Belgium. Public health, 118(1), 3-10.
Card, D. (1999). The causal effect of education on earnings. In Handbook of labor economics (Vol. 3, pp. 1801-1863). Elsevier.
Chernikovsky, D., Lucas, R. E., & Mueller, E. (1985). The household economy of rural Botswana: An African case. The World Bank.
Choi, A. (2018). De padres a hijos: expectativas y rendimiento académico en España. Presupuesto y gasto público, 90, 13-32.
Driessen, G., Smit, F., & Sleegers, P. (2005). Parental involvement and educational achievement. British educational research journal, 31(4), 509-532.
Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(19), 11176-11183.
Eckstein, Zvi, and Kenneth I. Wolpin (1999) ‘Why youths drop out of high school: the
impact of preferences, opportunities, and abilities,’ Econometrica 67, 1295–339
Edmonds, E. V., & Shrestha, M. (2012). The impact of minimum age of employment regulation on child labor and schooling. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 1(1), 14.
Grant, M. J., & Behrman, J. R. (2010). Gender gaps in educational attainment in less developed countries. Population and development review, 36(1), 71-89.
Gunnarsson, V., Orazem, P. F., & Sánchez, M. A. (2006). Child labor and school achievement in Latin America. The World Bank Economic Review, 20(1), 31-54.
Gillborn, D., & Mirza, H. S. (2000). Educational Inequality: Mapping Race, Class and Gender. A Synthesis of Research Evidence.
Grynspan, R. (2010). Foreword. In Declining inequality in Latin America: A decade of progress? (pp. Vi-Vii). Brookings Institution Press.
Heymann, J., Raub, A., & Cassola, A. (2013). Does prohibiting child labor increase secondary school enrolment? Insights from a new global dataset. International Journal of Educational Research, 60, 38-45.
ILAB (2020). Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Available at https://bit.ly/2Hwp3e2.
ILO (2020). What is child labour. International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) Available at https://bit.ly/3oudwfR.
Khang, Y. H., Lynch, J. W., & Kaplan, G. A. (2004). Health inequalities in Korea: age-and sex-specific educational differences in the 10 leading causes of death. International Journal of Epidemiology, 33(2), 299-308.
Kao, G., & Thompson, J. S. (2003). Racial and ethnic stratification in educational achievement and attainment. Annual review of sociology, 29(1), 417-442.
Levison, D. (2000). Children as economic agents. Feminist Economics, 6(1), 125-134.
Lee, J.-S., & Bowen, N. K. (2006). Parent Involvement, Cultural Capital, and the Achievement Gap Among Elementary School Children. American Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 193–218. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312043002193
Lochner, L. (2011). Non-production benefits of education: Crime, health, and good citizenship (No. w16722). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Lochner, L., & Moretti, E. (2004). The effect of education on crime: Evidence from prison inmates, arrests, and self-reports. American economic review, 94(1), 155-189.
López-Calva, L. F., & Lustig, N. C. (Eds.). (2010). Declining inequality in Latin America: A decade of progress?. Brookings Institution Press.
Machin, S., Marie, O., & Vujić, S. (2011). The crime reducing effect of education. The Economic Journal, 121(552), 463-484.
Marsh, H. W. (1991). Employment during high school: Character building or a subversion of academic goals?. Sociology of education, 172-189.
Mavrokonstantis, P. (2011). The impact of child labour on educational attainment: evidence from Vietnam. Young Lives Student Paper, Oxford: Young Lives.
Murillo, F. J. (2003). Una panorámica de la investigación iberoamericana sobre eficacia escolar. Revista Electrónica Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación, 1(1).
Montmarquette, C., Viennot-Briot, N., & Dagenais, M. (2007). Dropout, school performance, and working while in school. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(4), 752-760.
Parent, D. (2006). Work while in high school in Canada: its labour market and educational attainment effects. Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d’économique, 39(4), 1125-1150.
Psacharopoulos, G. (1997). Child labor versus educational attainment Some evidence from Latin America. Journal of population economics, 10(4), 377-386.
Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Girls’ and boys’ labor and household chores in low-and middle-income countries. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 81(1), 104.
Rosenzweig, M. R., & Evenson, R. (1977). Fertility, schooling, and the economic contribution of children of rural India: An econometric analysis. Econometrica: journal of the Econometric Society, 1065-10
How to Cite
Published
Issue
Section
License
Any authors who publish with this journal accept the following terms:
