PhD Projects

• Schooling and Child Labour in Portugal

Phd Candidate:

Pedro Goulart

Supervisory Team:

Prof. Arjun Bedi
Prof. Ashwani Saith

Funding agency:

Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal

Description:

The objective of this project is to examine schooling and child labour amongst Portuguese youth. In particular, the project adopts a multidisciplinary approach to characterise the multiple dimensions of and the interactions between schooling and child labour. The project comprises three parts.

1. The first part provides a historical perspective and examines the evolution of both schooling and child labour during the 19th and 20th century to understand their level and spatial patterns in present-day Portugal. It studies the major inflections in patterns of schooling attainment and child labour in the last 150 years and identifies the major forces that have driven the process. It finds that schooling increased and child labour declined in a period of major changes. However, these changes were by no means monotonic and should not be viewed as an inevitable outcome of economic growth. It is suggested that both schooling and child labour are amenable to policy (e.g. labour and education laws), although their long-run evolution are determined mainly by the needs of the country’s economic structure and the consequent pattern of labour demand.

2. The second part studies present-day school outcomes and combines ideas from economics, psychology and sociology. The determinants of school outcomes are assessed. Controlling for the effects of a wide range of individual, family and context characteristics, the project focuses on the effect of psycho-social variables such as educational aspirations and interest in school on educational outcomes. The manner in which these psycho-social variables are formed is also explored.

3. The third part investigates present-day child labour and examines the determinants of the practice today. It distinguishes between different types of child labour as it may allow the construction of tailor-made policy solutions. It identifies the major factors determining each type of labour and assesses the effect of different types of labour on school outcomes to investigate whether these have different implications for human capital accumulation.

Papers:

Journal Articles:

Eaton M. and P. Goulart, 'Portuguese Child Labour: an Enduring Tale of Exploitation', European Urban and Regional Studies, 16 (2009): 439-444. DOI: 10.1177/0969776409340862
Goulart P. and A.S. Bedi, 'Child Labour and Educational Success in Portugal', Economics of Education Review, 27(5) (2008): 575-587.

Books :

Pinto L. and P. Goulart (eds.) 'Trabalho familiar não remunerado', 166 p., PETI, MTSS; ISBN 978-989-95739-0-1, 2008.

Book Chapters:

Goulart P. and A.S. Bedi, 'A History of Child Labor in Portugal. Forthcoming in K. Lieten and E.N. Meerkerk (eds.) Child Labour's Global Past (1650-2000), Peter Lang, Bern.
Eaton M. and P. Goulart, 'Situation Today with respect to Child Labor in Portugal'. In Hugh D. Hindman (Volume editor) The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey. M.E. Sharpe, New York; 2009.
Goulart P., 'Trabalho familiar não remunerado: eu ajudo, tu ajudas, ele não; eu chumbo, tu chumbas, ele não'. In Joaquina Cadete and Teresa Maia e Carmo, 10 anos de combate ao trabalho infantil em Portugal, PETI, MTSS, Lisbon; 2008, pp.121-138.

• Intra household Resource allocation and Women’s Bargaining Power in Rural Ethiopia

Phd Candidate:

Bilisuma Bushie Dito

Supervisory Team:

Prof. Michael Grimm
Prof. Irene Van Staveren

Funding Agency:

Netherland Fellowship Program (NFP)

Description:

Much of the relevant literature on gender inequalities argues that these inequalitie are deeply rooted within a household. Particularly, there is an emphasis that these inequalities are consequences of inequalities in power within a household. This view has initiated the need to measure women’s power relative to men’s and test their impact on the well-being of men and women and other household members.

Though some progress has been made in understanding resource allocation behaviour within a household, the literature shows a number of gaps. While a variety of indicators show distinct aspects of women’s power, the indicators are often used to signal similar things. The distinct effects of specific dimensions of bargaining power have not yet been analyzed. A further investigation is also needed in order to understand what stand out as the underlying causes behind women’s low bargaining power. Finally, there is a general trend to use power indicators which are mainly associated with consumption, thus omitting many other important indicators of well-being.

This study attempts to fill these gaps using qualitative and quantitative data from rural Ethiopia. The qualitative data will allow understanding of how different bargaining power measures affect women’s power position within a household. The quantitative data (the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey dataset) will allow measuring the direct and indirect (spill-over) effects of women’s bargaining power on different outcomes. This thesis proposes to analyze three complementary issues in detail.

1. First, how women’s power position within a household affects intra-household inequality in health status and access to health services.
2. Second, how shocks, such as harvest failure, illness or mortality, affect intra-household time allocation and how bargaining power shapes this relationship.
3. Third, how women’s bargaining power influences child labour and education related outcomes.

• Targeting and Impact of Akhuwat: How Sustainable is this New Model of Microfinance?

PhD Candidate:

Maazullah Khan

Supervisory Team:

Prof.Arjun Singh Bedi
Dr. Robert Sparrow

Funding Agency:

Higher Education Commission of Pakistan

Description:

The government of Pakistan has used microfinance as a main tool in poverty reduction strategy. To achieve this objective, the government plays its role as a facilitator and a key supplier of funds to different partner organizations at subsidized rates. Despite immaculate credit history and very high loan repayment rates of the poor worldwide, conventional microfinance institutions (MFIs) continue to charge exuberant interest rates from its borrowers which are exploitative in nature.

Akhuwat, a non-profit MFI, provides another extreme example. Akhuwat follows a more altruistic approach to microfinance, extending interest free loans. One of the salient features of Akhuwat is that it mobilizes the community through mosques and churches for fund raising and implementation of their microfinance programme which substantially reduce its operational cost. In addition to helping society with interest free loans, its efforts have a positive spill over effects on society in terms of increased awareness and sense of ownership for a combined effort in fighting the menace of poverty. The other salient feature is that borrowers make voluntary small donations from their profits to Akhuwat. Such donations contribute to the sustainability of this programme and make borrowers feel like 'donors'.

The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the targeting efficiency and impact of the Akhuwat microfinance programme on poverty reduction by using an experimental design. The use of non/quasi-experimental designs has been widely criticized in contemporary literature due to its inability to control for those characteristics which might overestimate the impact. Since Akhuwat offers interest-free loans, it is a very popular programme and not all eligible applicants get loans due to insufficient funds. This provides a very interesting opportunity to randomize the treatment and evaluate the impact through an experimental design. The research project will also use non/quasi-experimental design to see if the unobservable characteristics in this case really matter.