Publication: The influence of the mother's power on her child's labor in Mexico
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2010-01
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Abstract
In order to understand what motivates parents to send their children to work, I
apply a collective household model introducing child labor explicitly. Using data
from Mexico, I estimate the mothers' bargaining power separately from the other
parameters of the model. This parameter is then used in a second stage
equation of children labor supply. I find that an increase in a mother's
bargaining power is associated with fewer hours of work for her daughters but
not for her sons. This implies that policies that target the mother as the recipient
of welfare benefits, if they manage to affect the distribution of power within the
household, may affect her children's work with different impacts for boys and
girls. This result also suggests that the distribution of bargaining power within
the household is a relevant factor that should be considered when analyzing
household's decisions.