Description: Child Labor, Schooling, and Child Ability

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Child Labor, Schooling, and Child Ability

Using data collected in rural Burkina Faso, this paper examines how children's cognitive abilities influence households' decisions to invest in their education. To address the endogeneity of child ability measures, the analysis uses rainf...

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Main Authors:	Akresh, Richard, Bagby, Emilie, de Walque, Damien, Kazianga, Harounan
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	ACCOUNT ACHIEVEMENT ACHIEVEMENT TESTS AVERAGE SCORE BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT BIRTH HISTORY BIRTH ORDER CHILD DEVELOPMENT CHILD HEALTH CHILD LABOR CHILD NUTRITION CHILDREN UNDER AGE CHILDRENS EDUCATION COGNITIVE ABILITY COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT COGNITIVE TESTS EARLY CHILDHOOD EARLY CHILDHOOD YEARS EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES ENROLLMENT ENROLLMENT RATE ENROLLMENT RATES EPIDEMICS EXTENDED FAMILY FAMILY MEMBERS FORMAL SCHOOLING GENDER GENDER BIAS GENDER DIFFERENCES GENDER GAP GIRLS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS INFANCY INTELLIGENCE INTERVENTIONS INTUITION LOW ENROLLMENT RATES MODELING NET ENROLLMENT OLDER CHILDREN OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN PARENTS PERSONALITY PERSONALITY TRAITS PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION PRIMARY SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN PROBLEM SOLVING PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS PSYCHOLOGY RETURNS TO EDUCATION RISKY BEHAVIORS SAFETY NETS SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECONDARY EDUCATION SOCIAL PROTECTION TEACHERS WAR YOUNG CHILDREN YOUNGER CHILDREN YOUTH
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20120209150137 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3250

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Summary:	Using data collected in rural Burkina Faso, this paper examines how children's cognitive abilities influence households' decisions to invest in their education. To address the endogeneity of child ability measures, the analysis uses rainfall shocks experienced in utero or early childhood to instrument for ability. Negative shocks in utero lead to 0.24 standard deviations lower ability z-scores, corresponding with a 38 percent enrollment drop and a 49 percent increase in child labor hours compared with their siblings. Negative education impacts are largest for in utero shocks, diminished for shocks before age two, and have no impact for shocks after age two. The paper links the fetal origins hypothesis and sibling rivalry literatures by showing that shocks experienced in utero not only have direct negative impacts on the child's cognitive ability (fetal origins hypothesis), but also negatively impact the child through the effects on sibling rivalry resulting from the cognitive differences.