Allocation of Child’s Time for Schooling in Rural Ethiopia: Does Households’ Participation in Off-farm Activities Matter?

Abstract

Using panel data collected over the course of three rounds, the study seeks to investigate the
factors that influence households' need for their children to attend school, concentrating primarily
on off-farm activities as a primary explanatory variable of interest. The study used propensity
score matching with a difference-in-difference estimator. The data is gathered from children
whose ages are below 15 and their households in rural Ethiopia. The findings show that the net
effect of a household's participation in off-farm activities on a child’s schooling was negative. The
rationale behind this result is that household participation in off-farm activities increases the
demand for child labor, which decreases a child’s time spent in school and studying. Other factors
such as household size, the age of the head, farm income, and livestock ownership significantly
affected a child’s schooling. A household’s participation in off-farm activities is influenced by the
head's age, access to credit, assistance, household size, the mean schooling of a male and female,
shocks, and livestock ownership. According to the study, incentivizing households to educate their
children rather than substituting child labor for adult labor should be considered. Adoption of
labor-saving technologies may encourage children to attend school by decreasing the desire for
child labor. By fostering the livestock industry, rural families can be strengthened, and a
comprehensive family planning strategy should be considered.