Abstract
Using a differences-in-differences approach we study the link between regional trade agreements (RTAs) and completion of primary education in developing countries and find that the causal link is negative and economically significant. Engaging in RTAs between 1980 and 2016 decreases primary education completion rate by approximately 0.757 percentage points. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of both falsification and placebo tests. More importantly, when applying event studies, we find that the equal trends assumption holds. We explain our findings as the likely result of increased opportunity costs in households whose adult members tend to be unskilled and relatively poor, as they have higher incentives of having their children work either outside or inside their households.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 317-339 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Open Economies Review |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 29 Jul 2022 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- Causality
- Child labor
- Developing countries
- Free trade, Primary schooling
- I25
- J23
- O10