School performance and child paid work: evidence from West Bank schools

The current study aims to investigate the impact of academic achievement on child labor. The study utilizes survey data collected from Palestinian children in the primary grades (5th-9th) in West Bank schools. The results show that increasing a child's academic achievement is significantly associated with decreasing the probability of a child's paid work in the following period. Our findings varied among children according to their gender, age, and locality type. Our analyses are subject to different specifications, including two-stage least squares (2SLS) to account for potential endogeneity. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the opportunity cost of dropping out of school is low for students with poor school outcomes. Further analysis indicates the role of the family-supportive environment as a mediator between academic success and child labor-supply decisions.