How much work is too much? Effects of child work hours on schooling – the case of Egypt

Abstract

How much work is “too much” for children aged 10–14 in Egypt? Our narrow focus here is on “work that does not interfere with school attendance.” For girls, work includes time spent in household chores and subsistence activities. We estimate simultaneous hours of work and school attendance equations as a joint Tobit and Probit model, then conduct simulations. Substantial negative effects on attendance are observed above about 10 hours per week (girls) and 14 hours (boys). For girls, heavy household work appears causal, but for boys, it seems that poor schooling leads to boys' dropout, then subsequent work.

Citation

Assaad, R., Levison, D. and Dang, H.-A. (2010), "How much work is too much? Effects of child work hours on schooling – the case of Egypt", Akee, R.K.Q., Edmonds, E.V. and Tatsiramos, K. (Ed.) Child Labor and the Transition between School and Work (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 31), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-9121(2010)0000031006