Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7440
Authors: Alison L. Booth; Yuji Tamura
Abstract: Using the first two waves of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey, we investigate how a father?s temporary absence affects children left behind in terms of their school attendance, household expenditures on education, and nonhousework labor supply in the 1990s. The estimating subsample is children aged 7-18 in households in which both parents usually coreside and the mother has not been absent. Our results indicate that paternal temporary absence increases nonhousework labor supply by his son. The longer the absence of the father, the larger the impact. One additional month of paternal temporary absence increases a son?s nonhousework labor supply by approximately one week. However, a daughter?s nonhousework labor supply is not affected. We find no evidence that paternal temporary absence influences his children in terms of school attendance or education-related household expenditures.
Keywords: Child Labor; Human Capital Investment; Parental Absence; Schooling; Temporary Migration; Vietnam; VLSS
JEL Codes: I22; O15; P36
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Paternal temporary absence (J22) | Non-housework labor supply of sons (D13) |
| Paternal temporary absence (J22) | Non-housework labor supply of daughters (D13) |
| Paternal temporary absence (J22) | School attendance (I21) |
| Paternal temporary absence (J22) | Household expenditures on education (H52) |