Intrahousehold Resource Allocation, Child Labor, and School Enrollment -Evidence from Rural India-

This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of child labor and school enrollment in rural Andhra Pradesh, India, using detailed time-use data, information to judge whether the household is under a binding credit constraint, and information on extra-household linkages covering pre-marital and parental generation. We derive empirical models from a theoretical framework of intrahousehold resource allocation and apply them to this dataset. The regression results from all empirical models support collective household models against unitary models. The empirical results based on a conditional labor supply approach show that when a mother works outside, her domestic labor is more likely to be replaced by daughters than by sons, but the sex contrast in market work by children is not affected much, resulting in a higher burden on daughters. The estimation results based on an endogenous switching model show that access to credit is a major determinant of the child’s time use: children of credit-constrained households spend less hours in school and for leisure but spend more hours working in the house.