Does school quality matter for working children

This paper aims to begin to fill in the gap about the possible role of school quality in affecting household decisions relative to children’s work and school attendance. While from a theoretical point of view, we would expect school quality to be an important determinant of household decisions, as it influences expected return to education, there is almost no empirical evidence available on the matter. We first review evidence based on cross country data to assess whether some clear stylized fact can be identified: cross country data show that children’s work and school attendance are negatively (positively) correlated to a few of the available school indicators. Subsequently, we use micro data for Yemen (YNPS, 1999 and Yemen School Based Survey, 1999/2000) and Cambodia (CSES and EMIS, 2003/204) to identify the effects of school quality on school attendance and children’s work, and results become more definitive. Our finding suggest that school quality matters for working children: better schools do reduce participation to economic activities and increase school attendance.