The effect of availability and distance from school on children‘s time allocation in Ghana

In this paper we present evidence on the impact of distance to school and school availability on households’ decisions concerning time allocation of primary-age children between work, schooling, and household chores activities using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 1998–99. Our results indicate that the increased and eased access to school has a well-defined impact on children’s time use. In particular, reducing the distance to primary school encourages children school attendance and reduces children work. Interestingly, the distance to middle school discourages children’s work and boosts household chores activities. Moreover, the availability of both primary and middle schools has a positive effect on schooling decisions, and having a primary school nearby discourages household chores activity. Our results are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of school placement and per capita expenditures. We also find that household decisions about children’s time use differ by children’s sex, suggesting that girls may be differently responsive to policy measures aimed at reducing work and household chores activities and at increasing their school attendance.