Are Children From Financially Included Households Less Likely to Work?

Abstract

Several factors including poverty, productivity shocks, labor market imperfections and parental education account for the incidence of  child labour. However, little is known about the impact of financial inclusion on children’s propensity to work in the Ghanaian context.  Using ordinary least squares and instrumental variable regressions, this study quantifies the effect of household financial inclusion on  the tendency of children to work. This study finds that children from financially included households are less likely to work compared to  their counterparts in financially excluded households. This negative and statistically significant link between financial inclusion and  children’s tendency to work becomes strong after assuaging endogeneity concerns.