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Little is known about why children participate in activities that are labeled worst forms of child labor (WFCL). Case–control approaches common in medicine are adapted to consider the correlates of participation in worst forms in the context of two WFCL in Nepal: portering and ragpicking. Paternal disability is a strong predictor of entry into each of the worst forms, and the presence of productive assets within the child's home reduces the risk a child is observed in a worst form. We argue that our findings are consistent with a model where there are negative amenities associated with these jobs that induce the poor and those with the fewest alternative earnings options to select into these WFCL in Nepal.

There are an estimated 190.7 million economically active children in the world today.¹ Most of these children are living in poor countries. Sixty-four percent live in Asia where nearly 1 in 5 children work. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is much smaller, but more than 1 in 4 children are economically active. These statistics do not include the hundreds of millions more that provide unpaid household services to their families.

The positive relationship between household poverty and child labor decisions need not to be generalised across different types of works and geographical regions. This chapter studies this relationship using the 2004 Malawi Integrated Household Survey data. The study attempts to identify the influence of exogenous change in household consumption on child labor decisions by using consumer durable goods as an instrument. These findings show that child labor was most prevalent and intensive in domestic work, but significant negative relationships between household consumption and child labor supply are only found in unpaid market work. These findings support both poverty reduction and awareness campaigns as child labor eradication strategies. Promotion of non-labor intensive income sources also seems to be an attractive policy option.

This chapter analyzes changes in the allocation of child labor within the household in reaction to exogenous shocks created by a social program in Nicaragua. The chapter shows that households that randomly received a conditional cash transfer (CCT) compensated for some of the intra-household differences, as they reduce child labor more for older boys who used to work more and for boys who were further behind in school. The results also show that households that randomly received a productive investment grant targeted at women, in addition to the basic CCT benefits, show an increased specialization of older girls in nonagricultural and domestic work, but no overall increase in girls’ child labor. The findings suggest that time allocation and specialization patterns in child labor within the household are important factors to understand the impact of a social program.

This chapter uses micro data from the Brazilian Pesquisa Nacional Por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) between 1981 and 2002 to ascertain the role that local labor demand – proxied by male adult employment in the area of residence – plays in shaping the work and schooling decisions of children aged 10–15 years. We find that child work is on average procyclical, while school enrollment is essentially unaffected by local labor market conditions: As local labor demand conditions improve, children are more likely to combine work with school and are less likely to be inactive. One exception is young urban boys with older brothers: These children experience a fall in employment when local labor demand is stronger. This result is consistent with older children subsidizing younger siblings’ schooling and play time.

We develop a model that characterizes all possible allocations of children's time between work and school, analyzing the relationship between market work, household chores, and Brazilian children's school enrollment. If pure market work is analyzed, we find that girls are less likely to work and more likely to exclusively attend relative to boys with similar characteristics. If the definition of work includes household chores, girls are less likely to be exclusively in school and more likely to work compared to boys. The results reveal that girls disproportionately carry out domestic responsibilities, which could hinder their school achievements. Furthermore, family structures with fewer preschool-aged siblings and with more adults present alleviate the pressure to displace girls’ time away from school and toward domestic activities.