FAMILY-SIZE, SCHOOLING AND CHILD LABOR IN PERU - AN EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes the effects of being indigenous, number of sibling s, sibling activities and sibling age structure on child schooling pro gress and child non-school activity. The analysis is based on the Peru 1991 Living Standards Survey, The analysis shows that family size is important. However, the analysis also demonstrates the importance of t aking into consideration the activities of siblings. The number of sib lings not entrolled in school proves to be an important control variab le in at least one specification of the empirical model, However, more research is needed on the interactions between siblings, their activi ties and their age structure. In other words, an attempt must be made to find ways of taking into account the ''life cycle effects'' of one' s siblings on their schooling performance and labor force activity. Th e analysis also shows that the age structure of siblings is important, but in conjunction with their activities, That is, having a greater n umber of younger siblings implies less schooling, more age-grade disto rtion in the classroom and more child labor.