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Although previous research often assumes that household structure is exogenous, the results of this paper provide strong evidence against the validity of that assumption. This paper analyzes a household’s decision to adjust its composition by sending and receiving children and finds that a household is significantly more likely to send out a child if it experiences a negative income shock, has a better quality social network, or has additional children in a given age and gender class. Quantifying the magnitude of this impact shows that increases of one standard deviation in a household’s…
No one wants children to suffer the harshness of life in poverty. This can drive some parents to entrust their children to an orphanage or to work in domestic service. It can lead some social workers to remove children from a home because their family is poor. There are times when these are the best options available: the children will be better fed and the parents may have the time to overcome a crisis and build a more stable home. Outcomes are far worse when children leave of their own accord and end up on their own in the streets. But even in the best of…
Existing scientific literature reveals that fostering is common in Africa, especially West Africa. However, little research has focused on the relationship between fostering and schooling.
By their nature, school statistics make it possible neither to study the factors influencing family schooling practices, nor to shed light on the relationship between family structures and school attendance. Aside from the pupils' age and sex, they provide no information on the children's individual and family characteristics, place of birth, family status; on the age, marital status, ethnicity, religion…