Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:32:24.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Working versus schooling: the impact of social expenditure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Christopher Grigoriou  and
Grégoire Rota Graziosi
Christopher Grigoriou
Affiliation:
CERDI-CNRS, University of Auvergne. Email: c.grigoriou@u-clermont1.fr,
Grégoire Rota Graziosi
Affiliation:
CERDI-CNRS, University of Auvergne. Email: g.rota_graziosi@u-clermont1.fr
Get access

Summary

We develop a theoretical model where child labour results from a household's trade-off between sending a child to school or to work. Education is considered as a risky investment, since the survival of the child is not certain. We explore the effects of public expenditure on education and health on child labour, specifying a transmission mechanism for each kind of spending. On the one hand, we establish that health expenditure reduces child labour all the more as child mortality rate is high. On the other hand, a moderate aversion to risk is a necessary condition for education expenditure to reduce child labour. Our theoretical results are empirically validated on panel data from 66 developing countries between 1985 and 2000.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article présente un modèle où le travail des enfants résulte d'un arbitrage du ménage entre scolariser ou faire travailler l'enfant. L'éducation est considérée comme un investissement risqué, la survie de l'enfant étant incertaine. L'impact des dépenses publiques d'éducation et de santé sur le tra¬vail des enfants est pris en compte en spécifiant un mécanisme de transmis¬sion propre à chaque type de dépense. Il apparaît d'une part que les dépenses de santé permettent de réduire d'autant plus le travail des enfants que la mortalité des enfants est élevée. D'autre part une aversion au risque modérée est une condition nécessaire pour que les dépenses d'éducation permettent de réduire le travail des enfants. Ces résultats théoriques sont validés empiriquement sur un panel de 66 pays en développement entre 1985 et 2000.

Keywords

J20K31D60travail des enfantsdépenses publiques de santédépenses publiques d'éducationchild laboureducation spendinghealth spending
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 33 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 2008 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anand, S., and Ravallion, M. (1993). “Human Development in Poor Countries: On the Role of the Private Incomes and Public Services,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7, 133–150.Google Scholar
Arrow, K.J. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Risk-Bearing. Yrjö Hahnsson Foundation, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Baland, J.-M., and Robinson, J.A. (2000). “Is Child Labor Inefficient?,” Journal of Political Economy, 108, 663–679.Google Scholar
Barro, R.J. (1990). “Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth,” Journal of Political Economy, 98, 103–125.Google Scholar
Barsky, R.B., Kimball, F.T. Juster, M.S., and Shapiro, M.D. (1997). “Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112, 537–79.Google Scholar
Basu, K. (1999). “Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards,” Journal of Economic Literature, 37, 1083–1119.Google Scholar
Basu, K., and Van, P.H. (1998). “The Economics of Child Labor,” American Economic Review, 88, 412–427.Google Scholar
Bidani, B., and Ravallion, M. (1997). “Decomposing Social Indicators Using Distributional Data,” Journal of Econometrics, 77, 125–139.Google Scholar
Binswanger, H. (1981). “Attitudes towards Risk: Theoretical Implications of an Experimental Study in rural India,” Economic Journal, 91, 867–890.Google Scholar
Burgess, R., and Stern, N. (1993). “Taxation and Development,” Journal of Economic Literature, 31, 762–830.Google Scholar
Chakraborty, S. (2004). “Endogeneous Lifetime and Economic Growth,” Journal of Economic Theory, 116, 119–137.Google Scholar
Chakraborty, S., and Das, M. (2005). “Mortality, Fertility and Child Labor,” Economics Letters, 86, 273–278.Google Scholar
Dessy, S.E., and Pallage, S. (2001). “Child Labor and Coordination Failures,” Journal of Development Economics, 65, 469–476.Google Scholar
Dessy, S.E., and Pallage, S. (2005). “A Theory of the Worst Forms of Child Labour,” Economic Journal, 115, 68–87.Google Scholar
Devarajan, S., and Hammer, J.S. (1998). “Risk Reduction and Public Spending,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1869.Google Scholar
Devarajan, S., Swaroop, V. and Zou, H. (1996). “The Composition of Public Expenditure and Economic Growth,” Journal of Monetary Economics, 37, 313–344.Google Scholar
Drukker, D. (2003). “Testing for Serial Correlation in Linear Panel-Data Models,” Stata Journal, 3, 168–177.Google Scholar
Filmer, D., Hammer, J. and Pritchett, L. (2000). “Weak Links in the Chain: A Diagnosis of Health Policy in Poor Countries,” World Bank Research Observer, 15, 199–224.Google Scholar
Franses, P., and Hobijn, B. (2001). “Are Living Standard Converging?,” Structural change and Economic Dynamics, 12, 171–200.Google Scholar
Glomm, G. (1997). “Parental Choice of Human Capital Investment,” Journal of Development Economics, 53, 99–114.Google Scholar
Gollier, C. (2001). The Economics of Risk and Time. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Grigoriou, C, and Guillaumont, P. (2003). “A Dynamic Child Survival Function: Natural Convergence and Economic Policy,” Etudes et Documents du CERDI (33), 29p.Google Scholar
Grimsrud, B. (2003). “Millenium Development Goals and Child Labour,” Understanding Children’s Work Project, UNICEF.Google Scholar
Gupta, S., Verhoeven, M. and Tiongson, E. (2001). “Public Spending on Health Care and the Poor,” IMF Working Paper, WP/01/127.Google Scholar
Hadar, J., and Seo, T.K. (1990). “The Effects of Shifts in a Return Distribution on Optimal Portfolios,” International Economic Review, 31, 721–736.Google Scholar
ILO (2002). Every Child Counts-New Global Estimates on Child Labour. International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).Google Scholar
Kakwani, N. (1993). “Performance in Living Standards: An International Comparison,” Journal of Development Economics, 41, 307–336.Google Scholar
Labenne, S. (1997). “The Determinants of Child Labor in India,” Manuscript. Namur, Belgium: Univ. Namur, Center Res. Econ. Development.Google Scholar
Ogaki, M., and Zhang, Q. (2001). “Decreasing Relative Risk Aversion and Tests of Risk Sharing,” Econometrica, 69, 515–526.Google Scholar
Patrinos, H.-A., and Psacharopoulos, G. (2004). “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Updatde,” Education Economics, 12, 111–134.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. (1981). “Household and Non-Household Activities of Youths: Issues of Modelling, Data and Estimation Strategies,” in Child Work, Poverty and Underde-velopment, ed. by Rodgers, G. and Standing, G. Geneva. ILO.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. (1990). “Economic Growth and Human Capital Investments: Theory and Evidence,” Journal of Political Economy, 53, 202–211.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1998). “Mortality as an indicator of economic success and failure,” The Economic Journal, 108, 1–25.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J.E. (1969). “The Effects of Income, Wealth, and Capital Gains Taxation on Risk-taking,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 83, 263–283.Google Scholar
Strulik, H. (2004). “Child Mortality, Child Labour, and Economic Development,” Economic Journal, 114, 547–568.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J. (2002). Econometric Analysis of Cross-Section and Panel Data. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
World Bank (2004). the World Development Indicators 2004, CD-ROM.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (2001). Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development. Geneva, available at http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidcmh/CMHReport.pdf.Google Scholar