Child Labor, Child Schooling, and Fertility in Rural Ghana: A Multilevel Analysis

Kofi D. Benefo, City University of New York

This study examines the effects of community level opportunities for child labor and child schooling on recent fertility and contraceptive use in rural Ghana while controlling for other individual household and community determinants of fertility. The data come from the 1987 and 1988 Ghana Living Standard Measurement Surveys and the 1984 Ghana population census. My analyses find that community level measures of children's roles are important determinants of recent fertility and contraceptive use even when other powerful determinants of fertility are included in the analyses. The proportions of a district's children in unpaid family employment, self-employment and wage employment are all positively related to individual women's recent fertility and negatively related to their contraceptive use. The proportion of a district's children in school is negatively related to recent fertility but positively related to contraceptive use at the individual level.