Despite rapid economic growth in South Asia, strong inequalities persist and children pay a heavy price. This publication examines latest trends and data on children in the eight countries of the region. It highlights what has been achieved in the 25 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child--and what remains to be done.

Child labor is considered a key obstacle to reaching the international commitments of Education For All. However, the empirical evidence on the effects of child labor on educational attainments is mostly limited to static measurements. This paper assesses the consequences of child labor on schooling outcomes over time by employing a three-year…

We examine work participation and schooling for children aged 7-15 using survey data from rural Ethiopia. Bivariate probit and age-adjusted educational attainment equations have been estimated. Male children are found to be more likely to attend school than their female counterparts. "Specialization" in child labour is also found, with…

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of child labor in the world and estimates show that it continues to grow. This paper examines the causes and magnitude of child labor in Kenya. Unlike previous studies that examined child labor as only an economic activity, this paper includes household chores. Including household chores is important…

This article extends previous work on family structure and children's education by conceptualizing migration as a distinct form of family disruption that reduces parental input but brings substantial economic benefits through remittances. It examines the multiple and countervailing effects of migration on schooling in the context of substantial…

This paper presents new evidence of the causal effect of family size on child quality in a developing-country context. We estimate the impact of family size on child labor and educational outcomes among Brazilian children and young adults by exploring the exogenous variation of family size driven by the presence of twins in the family. Using the…

This paper argues that conflicting results from previous literature--related to the effect of economic conditions on child labor--derive from different income and substitution effects implicit in different types of income variation. We use agricultural shocks to local economic activity in Brazil (coffee production) to distinguish between increases…

Despite the extensive literature on the determinants of child labor, the evidence on the consequences of child labor on outcomes such as education, labor, and health is limited. We evaluate the causal effect of child labor participation among children in school on these outcomes using panel data from Vietnam and an instrumental variables strategy.…

This article first provides an economic framework for understanding how an economic crisis affects children's educational outcomes; this framework shows that there are both negative (harmful) effects and positive (beneficial) effects on educational outcomes. A review of the empirical evidence suggests that the negative effects are typically…

This paper analyses the effectiveness of non-formal schools for working children in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, in mainstreaming child labourers into the formal education system through incentivised, informal schooling. Using a family fixed effects model and sibling data as an equivalent population comparison group, I find that the non-formal…

Fosterage is an important cultural institution which serves to strengthen kinship solidarity among a range of other functions including meeting needs for child labour. Its effects on education are ambiguous. This study examines fostering as a possible contributor to the low levels of educational access and progress in the district using secondary…

What it means to be a "student" varies within and between countries. Apart from the wide variety of school types and school quality that is experienced by young people, there also is, accompanying increased rates of school participation, a growing population of students who work part-time. The theoretical and actual consequences of…

This study estimates the returns to boys' education for rural Bangladeshi households by accounting for some conventionally neglected items: direct costs of education, foregone child labour earnings, and option value. The estimated returns are 13.5% for primary education, 7.8% for junior-secondary education, 12.9% for higher-secondary education,…

This paper uses household level data from National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) of India, the 55th (1999-2000) and the 61st (2004-05) rounds, to show that even with a significant wage incentive for schooling of urban children, the school drop out rate and child labour incidence are not small over this period. The parents' level of education…

This volume of Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice takes a resource perspective toward culture, ethnicity, and race. Its purpose is to foster global dialog about race and ethnicity, with an emphasis on sharing strategies and solutions. While one might view problems stemming from racial and ethnic differences as intractable, the book's…