The Effect of Household Poverty on Child Labor in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper uses the recent nationally representative household level data from Nigeria to empirically examine the effect of poverty on the likelihood of the poor households to engage their children in labor activities. Univariate probit model was used for the analysis and the result shows that per adult consumption expenditure as a proxy for household welfare has a significant negative effect on child labor decision of the households. The estimated result also suggests that the characteristic of the child, parent, household and the community significantly affects household child labor decision. Specifically, age of the child, household composition, education of the parents and rural locality determine child labor decision. Thus, it is inferred from this finding that the overall economic condition of the people needs to be improved to overcome child labor in Nigeria.

Keywords: Household Poverty; Child Labor; Nigeria