A series of factors predisposes many children to poverty, vulnerability, school dropout, unemployment
and social exclusion. In many of these dimensions, Haiti ranks among the poorest
countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region and worse than those of Africa with
similar levels of GDP per capita. This paper analyses the effect of socioeconomic vulnerability
on children’s time allocation in Haiti. In particular, we study the household decision
about the time allocation of 10-17 years old children to schooling, working and household
chores activities. The use of a recent and rich dataset of households in Haiti allow us to
account for the damages caused by the January 2010 earthquake on individual, household
and community characteristics, including socioeconomic vulnerability. Our results suggest
that vulnerability is associated to lower investments in children’s human capital.