Household work as a deterrent to schooling: An analysis of adolescent girls in Peru

Journal of Developing Areas

Volumn 32, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 339-356

  Levison, Deborah ^a   Moe, Karine S ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

^b MACALESTER COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DOMESTIC WORK; EDUCATION; GENDER ISSUE; PARTICIPATORY APPROACH;

PERU;

EID: 0032446102     PISSN: 0022037X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Lawrence Summers, foreword to Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies, ed. Elizabeth M. King and M. Anne Hill (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
2. M. Anne Hill and Elizabeth M. King, "Women's Education in the Third World: An Overview," in Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies, ed. King and Hill.
3. Mark Rosenzweig, "Population Growth and Human Capital Investments: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy 98S, Part 2 (October 1990): S38-S70.
4. Rachel Connelly, Deborah DeGraff, and Deborah Levison, "Women's Employment and Child Care in Brazil," Economic Development and Cultural Change 44 (April 1996): 619-56.
5. Andrew D. Mason and Shahidur R. Khandker, "Household Schooling Decisions in Tanzania" (report to the Poverty and Social Policy Department, Human Capital Development, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1996), pp. 15-16.
6. See Deborah Levison, "Child Work and Schooling in Brazil's Cities: Lessons from Survey Data" (Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455); idem, "Children's Labor Force Activity and Schooling in Brazil" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1991).
7. See Deborah Levison, "Child Work and Schooling in Brazil's Cities: Lessons from Survey Data" (Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455); idem, "Children's Labor Force Activity and Schooling in Brazil" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1991).
8. Excellent studies on education in Peru include Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics 42 (August 1990): 251 -75; Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education for Daughters in Contrast to Sons: Evidence from Rural Peru," World Bank Economic Review 6 (January 1992): 171-88; Hanan G. Jacoby, "Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru," Review of Economics and Statistics 76 (February 1994): 151-60; Elizabeth M. King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market? The Labor Force Participation, Occupation, and Earnings of Peruvian Women, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 67 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990); and Morton Stelcner, Ana-Maria Arriagada, and Peter Moock, "Wage Determinants and School Attainment among Men in Peru," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 38 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1988).
9. Excellent studies on education in Peru include Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics 42 (August 1990): 251 -75; Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education for Daughters in Contrast to Sons: Evidence from Rural Peru," World Bank Economic Review 6 (January 1992): 171-88; Hanan G. Jacoby, "Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru," Review of Economics and Statistics 76 (February 1994): 151-60; Elizabeth M. King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market? The Labor Force Participation, Occupation, and Earnings of Peruvian Women, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 67 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990); and Morton Stelcner, Ana-Maria Arriagada, and Peter Moock, "Wage Determinants and School Attainment among Men in Peru," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 38 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1988).
10. Excellent studies on education in Peru include Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics 42 (August 1990): 251 -75; Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education for Daughters in Contrast to Sons: Evidence from Rural Peru," World Bank Economic Review 6 (January 1992): 171-88; Hanan G. Jacoby, "Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru," Review of Economics and Statistics 76 (February 1994): 151-60; Elizabeth M. King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market? The Labor Force Participation, Occupation, and Earnings of Peruvian Women, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 67 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990); and Morton Stelcner, Ana-Maria Arriagada, and Peter Moock, "Wage Determinants and School Attainment among Men in Peru," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 38 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1988).
11. Excellent studies on education in Peru include Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics 42 (August 1990): 251 -75; Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education for Daughters in Contrast to Sons: Evidence from Rural Peru," World Bank Economic Review 6 (January 1992): 171-88; Hanan G. Jacoby, "Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru," Review of Economics and Statistics 76 (February 1994): 151-60; Elizabeth M. King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market? The Labor Force Participation, Occupation, and Earnings of Peruvian Women, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 67 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990); and Morton Stelcner, Ana-Maria Arriagada, and Peter Moock, "Wage Determinants and School Attainment among Men in Peru," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 38 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1988).
12. Excellent studies on education in Peru include Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics 42 (August 1990): 251 -75; Paul Gertler and Paul Glewwe, "The Willingness to Pay for Education for Daughters in Contrast to Sons: Evidence from Rural Peru," World Bank Economic Review 6 (January 1992): 171-88; Hanan G. Jacoby, "Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru," Review of Economics and Statistics 76 (February 1994): 151-60; Elizabeth M. King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market? The Labor Force Participation, Occupation, and Earnings of Peruvian Women, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 67 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990); and Morton Stelcner, Ana-Maria Arriagada, and Peter Moock, "Wage Determinants and School Attainment among Men in Peru," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 38 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1988).
13. For example, Deborah S. DeGraff, Richard E. Bilsborrow, and Alejandro N. Herrin, "Children's Education in the Philippines: Does High Fertility Matter?" Population Research and Policy Review 15 (June 1995): 219-47, consider multiple activities of children, but focus on participation rather than hours.
14. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is taken from Robert Summers and Alan Heston, "A New Set of International Comparisons of Real Product and Price Levels Estimates for 130 Countries, 1950-1985," Review of Income and Wealth 34 (March 1988): 1-26. For recent economic trends in Peru, see Paul Glewwe and Dennis de Tray, The Poor in Latin America during Adjustment: A Case Study of Peru, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 56 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1989); and Paul Glewwe and Gillette Hall, "Poverty, Inequality, and Living Standards during Unorthodox Adjustment: The Case of Peru, 1985-1990," Economic Development and Cultural Change 42 (July 1994): 689-717.
15. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is taken from Robert Summers and Alan Heston, "A New Set of International Comparisons of Real Product and Price Levels Estimates for 130 Countries, 1950-1985," Review of Income and Wealth 34 (March 1988): 1-26. For recent economic trends in Peru, see Paul Glewwe and Dennis de Tray, The Poor in Latin America during Adjustment: A Case Study of Peru, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 56 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1989); and Paul Glewwe and Gillette Hall, "Poverty, Inequality, and Living Standards during Unorthodox Adjustment: The Case of Peru, 1985-1990," Economic Development and Cultural Change 42 (July 1994): 689-717.
16. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is taken from Robert Summers and Alan Heston, "A New Set of International Comparisons of Real Product and Price Levels Estimates for 130 Countries, 1950-1985," Review of Income and Wealth 34 (March 1988): 1-26. For recent economic trends in Peru, see Paul Glewwe and Dennis de Tray, The Poor in Latin America during Adjustment: A Case Study of Peru, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 56 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1989); and Paul Glewwe and Gillette Hall, "Poverty, Inequality, and Living Standards during Unorthodox Adjustment: The Case of Peru, 1985-1990," Economic Development and Cultural Change 42 (July 1994): 689-717.
17. Rosemary Thorp and Geoffrey Bertram, Peru 1890-1977: Growth and Policy in an Open Economy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978).
18. See Hanan G. Jacoby, "Productivity of Men and Women and the Sexual Division of Labor in Peasant Agriculture of the Peruvian Sierra," Journal of Development Economics 37 (November 1992): 265-87.
19. Ximena Bunster B., "Market Sellers in Lima, Peru: Talking about Work," chapter 5 in Women and Poverty in the Third World, ed. Mayra Buvinic, Margaret A. Lycette, and William P. McGreevey (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), pp. 92-103; Carmen D. Deere, "The Allocation of Familial Labor and the Formation of Peasant Household Income in the Peruvian Sierra," chapter 6 in Women and Poverty in the Third World, ed. Buvinic, Lycette, and McGreevey, pp. 104-29.
20. Ximena Bunster B., "Market Sellers in Lima, Peru: Talking about Work," chapter 5 in Women and Poverty in the Third World, ed. Mayra Buvinic, Margaret A. Lycette, and William P. McGreevey (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), pp. 92-103; Carmen D. Deere, "The Allocation of Familial Labor and the Formation of Peasant Household Income in the Peruvian Sierra," chapter 6 in Women and Poverty in the Third World, ed. Buvinic, Lycette, and McGreevey, pp. 104-29.
21. See King, Does Education Pay in the Labor Market?
22. Deere, "Allocation of Familial Labor," p. 119. For female labor force participation rates across Latin America, see George Psacharopoulos and Zafiris Tzannatos, "Economic and Demographic Effects on Working Women in Latin America," Journal of Population Economics 6 (November 1993): 293-315.
23. Deere, "Allocation of Familial Labor," p. 119. For female labor force participation rates across Latin America, see George Psacharopoulos and Zafiris Tzannatos, "Economic and Demographic Effects on Working Women in Latin America," Journal of Population Economics 6 (November 1993): 293-315.
24. Sonalde Desai, "Health and Equity: Refocusing on Basic Needs and Livelihood Strategies," Population Council Working Paper No. 56 (Population Council, New York, 1993).
25. Deere, "Allocation of Familial Labor," p. 109.
26. Ibid., p. 112.
27. Caroline O. N. Moser, "Adjustment from Below: Low-Income Women, Time, and the Triple Role in Guayaquil, Ecuador," chapter 5 in Women and Adjustment Policies in the Third World, ed. Haleh Afshar and Carolyne Dennis (New York: St. Martin's, 1992), p. 107.
28. Lourdes Benería, "The Mexican Debt Crisis: Restructuring the Economy and the Household," chapter 4 in Unequal Burden: Economic Crisis, Persistent Poverty, and Women's Work, ed. Lourdes Benería and Shelley Feldman (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992), p. 96.
29. John F. Watkins, Thomas R. Leinbach, and Karen F. Falconer, "Women, Family, and Work in Indonesian Transmigration," Journal of Developing Areas 27 (April 1993): 389 (italics in original).
30. Gary S. Becker, "A Theory of the Allocation of Time," Economic Journal 75 (September 1965): 493-517.
31. The home production model implicitly assumes perfect fertility control, allowing a couple to precisely determine the number and spacing of their children according to a sometime invariant master plan, about which they are in perfect agreement. Evidence, however, of extremely imperfect fertility control (John Bongaarts, "The Measurement of Wanted Fertility," Population and Development Review 16 [September 1990]: 487-506, estimates that only 51 percent of fertility was desired in Peru in 1986), as well as evidence regarding conflict between spouses with regard to sex and fertility (as documented by Athena Tapales, "Who Really Decides? Reproductive Decision Making among Married Couples in the Philippines" (master's thesis, University of Minnesota, 1995), suggests that the household model is more appropriately interpreted as determining short-run equilibria. The fact that our estimated coefficients are robust to inclusion or exclusion of household structure variables suggests that endogeneity bias is at least not affecting other estimated parameters.
32. The home production model implicitly assumes perfect fertility control, allowing a couple to precisely determine the number and spacing of their children according to a sometime invariant master plan, about which they are in perfect agreement. Evidence, however, of extremely imperfect fertility control (John Bongaarts, "The Measurement of Wanted Fertility," Population and Development Review 16 [September 1990]: 487-506, estimates that only 51 percent of fertility was desired in Peru in 1986), as well as evidence regarding conflict between spouses with regard to sex and fertility (as documented by Athena Tapales, "Who Really Decides? Reproductive Decision Making among Married Couples in the Philippines" (master's thesis, University of Minnesota, 1995), suggests that the household model is more appropriately interpreted as determining short-run equilibria. The fact that our estimated coefficients are robust to inclusion or exclusion of household structure variables suggests that endogeneity bias is at least not affecting other estimated parameters.
33. King and Hill, Women's Education in Developing Countries.
34. James Heckman, "Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply," Econometrica 42 (July 1974): 679-94.
35. Margaret Grosh and Paul Glewwe, "Data Watch: The World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study Household Surveys," Journal of Economic Perspectives 12 (Winter 1998): 187-96. Also see Margaret Grosh and Juan Muñoz, A Manual for Planning and Implementing the Living Standards Measurement Study Survey, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 126 (Washington DC: World Bank, 1996).
36. Margaret Grosh and Paul Glewwe, "Data Watch: The World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study Household Surveys," Journal of Economic Perspectives 12 (Winter 1998): 187-96. Also see Margaret Grosh and Juan Muñoz, A Manual for Planning and Implementing the Living Standards Measurement Study Survey, Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 126 (Washington DC: World Bank, 1996).
37. Stephen P. Jenkins and Nigel C. O'Leary, "Modeling Domestic Work Time," Journal of Population Economics 8 (October 1995): 265-79, discuss regressors in models of time spent doing unpaid domestic work.
38. Unfortunately we do not know whether the girl is a native speaker of Spanish or of an indigenous language, which, according to Harry A. Patrinos, Eduardo Velez, and George Psacharopoulos, "Language, Education, and Earnings in Asunción, Paraguay," Journal of Developing Areas 29 (October 1994): 57-68, should affect her returns to education and thus her school attendance.
39. Levison, "Children's Labor Force Activity and Schooling in Brazil."
40. We calculate family income as the sum of wage income and the household's self-reported value of any payments-in-kind. Since the Peru Living Standards Survey (PLSS) was conducted over a time period in which Peru experienced extremely high inflation, the income numbers are deflated.
41. Eva Mueller, "The Economic Value of Children in Peasant Agriculture," in Population and Development: The Search for Selective Interventions, ed. Ronald G. Ridker (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976).
42. Watkins, Leinbach, and Falconer, "Women, Family, and Work," 377-98.
43. Deborah DeGraff and Richard E. Bilsborrow, "Female-Headed Households and Family Welfare in Rural Ecuador," Journal of Population Economics 6 (November 1993): 317-36; quotation from p. 330.
44. Mueller, "Economic Value of Children."
45. Hill and King, "Women's Education in the Third World."
46. The omitted category contains the average of 3.7 completed years of schooling for the mother. Categories were grouped based on the result of a specification by single years of age. Our sample is too small for the use of single years of age to be feasible, given the number of other regressors.
47. The average education level of mothers in this sample is 3.7 years.
48. M. Anne Hill and Elizabeth M. King, "Women's Education and Economic Well-Being," Feminist Economics 1 (Summer 1995): 21-46.
49. See, for example, T. Paul Schultz, "The Influence of Fertility on Labor Supply of Married Women: Simultaneous Equation Estimates," in Research in Labor Economics, vol. 2, ed. Ronald G. Ehrenberg (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1978); and T. Paul Schultz, "Marital Status and Fertility in the United States: Welfare and Labor Market Effects," Journal of Human Resources 29 (Spring 1994): 646-69.
50. See, for example, T. Paul Schultz, "The Influence of Fertility on Labor Supply of Married Women: Simultaneous Equation Estimates," in Research in Labor Economics, vol. 2, ed. Ronald G. Ehrenberg (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1978); and T. Paul Schultz, "Marital Status and Fertility in the United States: Welfare and Labor Market Effects," Journal of Human Resources 29 (Spring 1994): 646-69.
51. See Appendix for the results of the estimation excluding family structure.