The Determinants of Child Labour and Child Schooling in Ghana

This paper investigates the main determinants of child labour and child schooling in Ghana, with special reference to their interaction. The study provides evidence on the impact of poverty and quality of schooling on child labour hours, taking into account their potential endogeneity. The exercise distinguishes between cluster poverty and household poverty in the two-stage Heckman estimation procedure. In addition, it relies on a set of non-common regressors to identify the child labour hours regression from the selection equation. Other methodological features include simultaneous equations estimation of child labour, child schooling and poverty, taking into account their joint endogeneity. The empirical results contain some evidence of sharp rural urban differences, thus, pointing to the need to adopt region specific policies in enhancing child welfare. However, rural, semi-urban and urban Ghana agree on the effective role that improved school attendance can play in curbing child labour.