Child Labor and Schooling in Bolivia: Who’s Falling Behind? The Roles of Domestic Work, Gender, and Ethnicity

Abstract

We analyze the role of gender and ethnicity in the work-school tradeoff among school-aged children. We observe domestic chores in Bolivian data and consider them work, finding that girls are 51% more likely than boys to be out of school and working, mostly in domestic activities. For indigenous children the probability is 60% higher than non-indigenous, and indigenous girls are 23% more likely than boys to be out of school and working. A more comprehensive measure of child labor reveals that in countries with large indigenous populations, indigenous girls are most vulnerable to future poverty and exclusion due to low education.