Does Child Labor Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioral Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy

This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Does child labour displace schooling? Evidence on behavioral responses to an enrollment subsidy, conducted between 1995 and 1996, in Bangladesh. The study observed that the subsidy increases schooling, but its effect on child labour is ambiguous. The subsidy increased schooling by far more than it reduced child labour. Substitution effects helped protect current incomes from the higher school attendance induced by the subsidy. Substitution effects helped protect current incomes from the higher school attendance induced by the subsidy. The reduction in the incidence of child labour by boys (girls) represents about one quarter (eighth) of the increase in their school enrollment rate.

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