Agricultural Policy, Schooling Participation, and Child Labor in Developing Countries: Cotton Expansion in Burkina Faso

Harounan Kazianga, Oklahoma State University

I use variation in cotton production in Burkina Faso to measure changes in local economic conditions between 1994 and 2003, which proxy for the value of children's time. I test how this variation affects schooling and child labor using three rounds of nationally representative household surveys. Cotton adoption increases households income, leading to increased demand for schooling and reduced child labor. On the other hand, because children are productive on cotton farms, cotton adoption increases the opportunity cost of child time and the demand for child labor. I find that cotton adoption increased schooling for girls, while boys were not significantly aaffected. I provide suggestive evidence showing that boys are more productive than girls on cotton farms. Therefore, the income effect from cotton adoption was larger than the wage effect for girls, hence the positive effect on enrollment. For boys the income and wage effects offset each other.