Youth Education and Work in Mexico

Abstract

A holistic approach to schooling in developing countries-considering schooling in conjunction with labor force work, child care, and other household responsibilities-is necessary to construct policies that will encourage greater educational attainment, especially for children and youth in poor families. Using data from the Encuesta Nacional de Empleo Urbano (ENEU), we jointly estimate the determinants of studying and working, doing both, or doing neither for 12 to 17 year-olds in urban Mexico. We consider the implications of defining work to include both labor force employment and household domestic work, in contrast to the traditional definition of market-based employment. Results based on the traditional definition indicate that girls are 13.8 percentage points more likely than boys to specialize in school, while those based on the more inclusive measure of work indicate that girls are 7.7 percentage points less likely than boys to specialize in school.

Keywords: Latin America, Mexico, education, child labor, gender, housework