Are Work and Schooling Complementary or Competitive for Children in Rural Ethiopia?

The chapter draws on literature from anthropology and childhood studies and on the author's qualitative research in a Young Lives survey site to question the exclusive focus of many economists on the hours taken by activities. The chapter argues that whether work and schooling are complementary or competitive depends not only on the time each activity takes, but also on the characteristics of the activity. With variables from the Young Lives survey as proxies for these characteristics, the chapter undertakes exploratory quantitative analysis across all 13 rural survey sites. Some correlation between these proxies and decisions about children?s schooling and work suggest that the characteristics of activities are generally relevant.

Reference: 

Orkin, Kate (2012) ' Are Work and Schooling Complementary or Competitive for Children in Rural Ethiopia? A Mixed-methods Study',  in Jo Boyden and Michael Bourdillon (eds) Childhood Poverty. Multidisciplinary Approaches (pp.298-313). Oxford: Palgrave Macmilllan.