Impact of income shock on children’s schooling and labor in a West African country

Fatoke Dato, Mafaizath A. (2015): Impact of income shock on children’s schooling and labor in a West African country.

Abstract

This study measures the impact of a flood in 2010 in Benin on children’s schooling and labor. The data used are the National Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of 2006 and 2012. The difference in differences estimates points out a significant decrease in income between farm households and non-farm households following the shock. Enrollment has also significantly decreased by 5.99% for girls in rural areas, by 4.45% for boys in rural areas, by 7.76% for girls in urban areas and by 6.17% for boys in urban areas. The likelihood to be a domestic worker or a farmer has also significantly increased. Robustness checks, on different other groups, are in concordance with the results. Despite the removal of school fees in 2006, households still withdrew their children from school after this income shock. These results imply that income shocks could be a threat to the Universal Primary Education.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Natural disasters, Education, Income shock, Child labor
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I24 - Education and Inequality; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O55 - Africa; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q54 - Climate ; Natural Disasters and Their Management ; Global Warming

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