Child labor and schooling in Bolivia: Who’s falling behind? The roles of domestic work, gender and ethnicity

We analyze the work-school tradeoff among Bolivia’s children. We compare a definition of work that includes only market activities and one that also considers domestic chores. Our empirical specification considers the joint determination of these decisions. We find that a tradeoff exists and that gender and ethnicity matter. Boys are more likely to work if pure market activities are considered&& once domestic tasks are included girls are twice as likely to work than boys. The tradeoff between school and work is stronger for indigenous children, and indigenous girls are falling behind other children in terms of their human capital accumulation.