Information and Communications Technology, Agricultural Profitability and Child Labor in Rural Peru

Abstract

We estimate the impact of access to information and communications technology on agricultural profitability and child labor among isolated rural villages in Peru. We exploit the timing of an intervention that provided at least one public (satellite) payphone to villages that did not previously have communications services. Using a village‐level panel, we show that agricultural profitability increased by 19.7%. Moreover, this positive income effect translated into an increase in the likelihood of children being dedicated only to school and a reduction in the likelihood of child labor equivalent to 17 and 16 percentage points respectively.