Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education

Koomson, Isaac and Asongu, Simplice (2015): Relative Contribution of Child Labour to Household Farm and Non-Farm Income in Ghana: Simulation with Child's Education. Forthcoming in: African Development Review

Abstract

Child labourers play an integral role in households’ income diversification process by contributing to farm and non-farm incomes but policies, including that of the ILO have focused largely on eliminating child labour from the agricultural sector through education. This study sought to ascertain the relative contribution of child labourers to farm and non-farm income using the GLSS6 data and employed a SUR estimation that simulated, empirically, with child’s education. Findings showed that as a child labourer spends more time in school, every Gh₵1.00 contributed to farm income is accompanied by a Gh₵2.12 contribution towards non-farm income. By implication, child education policy removes child labourers from the farm but are likely to have a paradoxical effect of pushing these children into non-farm activities as they engage in them after school and during weekends. The suggestion is that governments must provide adequate remuneration for workers and pay a good price for agricultural products so that households do not use children as instruments to diversity their income portfolios, since child labour acts as a push factor in the diversification process.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Child labour, Farm income, Non-Farm income, Altruistic, Non-Altruistic
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I21 - Analysis of Education; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J22 - Time Allocation and Labor Supply; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J23 - Labor Demand; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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