Household work as a deterrent to schooling: An analysis of adolescent girls in Peru

Using the 1985-86 Peru Living Standard Survey (PLSS) data on hours spent in paid work, unpaid work, household chores, and school, we analyze the determinants of hours spent in chores and in school for adolescent girls in Peru. Generalized Tobit methods are employed to estimate hours in school and hours of chores separately. This paper addresses two major gaps in the literature. First, the focus of most studies has been on education alone or on paid labor market work as the primary deterrent to schooling. Since in many contexts boys are more likely to be engaged in labor market work than girls, much of the work that girls do has been ignored. Second, owing to a lack of data, the majority of studies have focused on whether children engage in activities or not, as opposed to how much time they spend on those activities. In contrast, this paper uses detailed information on hours spent in paid work, unpaid work, household chores, and school, and focuses on girls' time allocated to household chores and school. The results indicate that girls in better living conditions with more educated mothers spend fewer hours doing chores and more hours in school. Girls with more preschool-age siblings do more chores and spend less time in school, but this effect on chores can be offset by the presence of other girls and women with whom they presumably share household tasks. Surprisingly, mother's presence reduces school hours substantially, although it increases the likelihood of enrollment.