Virginia Tech
Understanding the Relationship Between Poverty, Education and Child Labor: An Analysis of Child Labor in Nigeria
Abstract
dc:description.abstractTwo major ideas dominate past literature on child labor. First, past literature continues to support the well-developed relationship between poverty and rates of child labor. Second, past literature continues to associate school attendance as the primary opportunity cost of child labor and juxtaposes the variables as a mutually exclusive trade off. The following project investigates both these ideas. By conducting several logit regression models between school attendance and participation in family-affiliated agricultural practices in Nigeria, the paper investigates a specific aspect of poverty (school attendance) while also providing empirical evidence to support the assumed relationship that education and child labor represent a trade off. The findings support the notion that school attendance correlates with a decreased likelihood of participation in moderate forms of child labor. Children in Nigeria who attend school are less likely to also have worked in a family affiliated agricultural capacity. The project concludes by discussing the potentially positive policy implications for eliminating exploitative child labor. By framing moderate agricultural labor as the most engrained form of child labor, the theoretical implications of the impact of school attendance on child labor becomes even greater.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Arts
- Level thesis:degree_level
- masters
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Political Science
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Political Science
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2015
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Clott, Timothy Alec
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Luke, Timothy W.
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Briggs, Ryan C.
- Thomas, Courtney Irene Powell
Subjects
dc:subject × 5Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- vt_gsexam:6919
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/64398