| Abstract: |
This paper aims at identifying the major drop-out and push-out factors that
lead to school abandonment in an urban surrounding, the shantytowns of
Fortaleza, Northeast Brazil. We use an extensive survey addressing risk
factors faced by the population in these neighborhoods, which covered both
in-school and out-of-school youth, of both genders. The role of early
parenthood, child labor, and poverty in pushing teenagers out of school is
subject to particular attention. The potential endogeneity of some of the
determinants is dealt with in the empirical analysis. We take advantage of the
rich set of variables available and apply an instrumental variables approach.
Early parenthood is instrumented with the age declared by the youngsters as
the ideal age to start having sexual relationships; work is instrumented using
the declared reservation wage (minimum salary acceptable to work). Results
indicate that early parenthood has a strong impact driving teenagers out of
school. Extreme poverty is another factor lowering school attendance, as
children who have suffered hunger at some point in their lives are less likely
to attend school. In this particular urban context, working does not
necessarily have a detrimental effect on school attendance, which could be
linked to the fact that dropping out of school leads most often to inactivity,
and not to work. |