We examine a potential intergenerational determinant of child labor by investigating the effect
of maternal education on children0
s educational and labor outcomes. To account for endogeneity
of mother’s education, we use the Nepal Education System Plan (NESP) (1971), one of the
first education reforms in the country, as an exogenous source of variation. We find that NESP
increased educational outcomes among females that were most likely affected by the reform due
to their birth year and district of birth. Furthermore, an increase in mother’s highest level of
schooling increases a child’s probability of finishing 5th grade only among mothers from a higher
caste households. We find modest effects of mother’s education on child labor outcomes, with the
IV estimate indicating that a year increase in mother’s education reduces a child’s weekly work
by approximately an hour. The IV estimates are about two-fold larger than the OLS estimates
in most cases. We caution that exclusion based on social hierarchy should be considered when
promoting maternal education as a medium to improve children’s well-being in developing nations
like Nepal.