Author : Allen IV, James
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)
Book Synopsis Double-booked: Effects of overlap between school and farming calendars on education and child labor by : Allen IV, James
Download or read book Double-booked: Effects of overlap between school and farming calendars on education and child labor written by Allen IV, James and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2024-02-12 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across sub-Saharan Africa, countries with a greater percentage of overlapping days in their school and farming calendars also have lower primary school survival rates. In theory, greater overlap between the school and farming calendars should indeed reduce schooling investments, and farm-based child labor too, as it constrains the time allocation opportunity set for both productive activities. I causally identify such effects by leveraging a four-month shift to the school calendar in Malawi that exogenously changed the number of days that the school calendar overlapped with specific crop calendars, which differentially affected communities based on their pre-policy crop allotments. Using panel data for school-aged children, I find that a 10-day increase in school calendar overlap during peak farming periods significantly decreases school advancement by 0.34 grades (one lost grade for every three children) and the share of children engaged in peak-period household farming by 11 percentage points after four years. Secondary analyses reveal stronger negative schooling impacts for girls and poorer households driven by overlap with the labor-intensive planting period. A policy simulation illustrates that adapting the school calendar to minimize overlap with peak farming periods is a highly cost-effective educational intervention to increase school participation by better accommodating farm labor demand.