CHILDRENS EDUCATION IN THE PHILLIPINES - DOES HIGH FERTILITY MATTER

This paper examines the effects of family size and sibling position on children's current school enrollment status in the Philippines. The t heoretical framework focuses on the determinants of children's partici pation in alternative activities, specifically schooling, market work, and home production. This approach allows for a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which fertility, as reflected by number of siblings and sibling composition, influences children's education than would examining the determinants of schooling alone. The model is est imated using the 1983 wave of the Bicol Multipurpose Survey. The resul ts indicate the existence of negative effects of fertility on school e nrollment, which, in part, operate through work status. In addition, t hese effects differ according to the sibling position of the child.