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Child Labour Effects of Access to Basic Utilities
Alessandro Cigno, Furio C. Rosati ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This chapter looks at how access to basic utilities such as water and electricity affects how children use their time. When households spend a lot of time gathering water and fuel, children's time becomes more valuable for work. The author notes that it is hard to build a credible comparison for this kind of analysis. The results presented suggest that access to basic services has a relevant effect on child labour. The chapter concludes that governments concerned about child labour and school attendance should prioritise these facilities alongside schools and health services.
Key points
- According to UNICEF in 2022, about 700 million people had no or very limited access to water.
- Roughly the same number of people did not have access to electricity.
- If households spend substantial time gathering water and fuel, the opportunity cost of children's time rises.
- Identifying a counterfactual makes the empirical analysis difficult.
- Access to basic services has a relevant effect on child labour, so governments should give these facilities high priority.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so the countries, data, methods, effect sizes and the specific services studied are not stated. The abstract itself notes that identifying a counterfactual is difficult.
Abstract
Abstract According to UNICEF in 2022 about 700 million people had no or very limited access to water and roughly the same number did not have access to electricity. This chapter discusses the effects of access to basic services on the use of the children’s time. If households devote substantial time to gathering water and fuel, then the opportunity-cost of children’s time rises. The empirical analysis is difficult because of the complexities of identifying a counterfactual. However, the results presented indicate that access to basic services has a relevant effect on child labour, with the obvious policy implication that, as well as providing schools and health, governments concerned about child labour and school attendance should give a high priority to these basic facilities.