No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa

Jieun Lee, Hyoungjong Kim, Dong Eun Rhee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study empirically examines the effect of child labor on academic achievement in 10 francophone Western and Central African countries. The data were taken from the Programme d'Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN and comprised characteristics of 25,288 grade six students across 1803 schools. Two-stage least squares analysis highlights that child labor undermines academic achievement regardless of subject, gender, and age. It lowers reading and mathematics scores for both genders and for children under 12 and over 13 years. Child labor therefore hinders human capital accumulation in African countries, and it takes place at the cost of future prosperity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102308
JournalInternational Journal of Educational Development
Volume80
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021 Jan

Keywords

  • Academic performance
  • Child labor
  • Educational development
  • Human capital

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Development
  • Sociology and Political Science

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