CHILD LABOR VERSUS EDUCATIONAL-ATTAINMENT - SOME EVIDENCE FROM LATIN-AMERICA

The paper addresses the issue of child labor in relation to the educat ional attainment of working children. The empirical analysis is based on household surveys in Bolivia and Venezuela. It was found that labor force participation is non-trivial among those below the legal workin g age or supposed to be in school. Working children contribute signifi cantly to total household income. The fact that a child is working red uces his or her educational attainment by about 2 years of schooling r elative to the control group of non-working children. Grade repetition , a common phenomenon in Latin America, is closely associated with chi ld labor.