Community influences on schooling and work activity of youth in Pakistan

Abstract

While considerable research on children's education and work in Pakistan exists, most researchers analyse these activities separately using individual and household characteristics, particularly poverty, as key explanatory factors. This paper serves to advance knowledge of youths' activities by (1) modelling their work and schooling simultaneously and (2) assessing the influence of community-level factors in addition to individual and households variables on these activities. Utilising a sample of 5,497 youth aged ten to sixteen from the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey 1991, I use multinomial logistic regression techniques to investigate the influence of the availability of schools, wage returns to education, and infrastructure development at the local community level on youth work and schooling. Results demonstrate that the community context in which a youth resides influences his or her work and schooling participation. Specifically, the availability of a proximate, same-sex primary school and household water sources in the community increase youths' school attendance and decrease their work. Further, institutional structures at the community level explain much of the difference in the work and schooling of rural and urban youth. The results lead to important theoretical and policy implications. First, they suggest that models focusing on individual and household level factors may be too simplistic. Second, they support the importance of analysing activities of children and youth simultaneously. Finally, they point to key policy interventions outside the household (particularly in the provision of public, same-sex schools and water supply) to improve school attendance and decrease work activity.