Labour market outcomes and child marriage: Evidence from BRAC's skills training programme

Abstract

Inadequate employment opportunities and child marriage are major challenges for female adolescents in many developing countries. Using panel data on a group of 14-18-year-old Bangladeshi adolescents receiving vocational skills training from BRAC and a group of non-participants, this paper analyses the impact of skills training on labour supply, earnings, and child marriage. The intervention is found to significantly increase adolescents' labour market participation and income, with the impacts being higher for girls. It also significantly reduces the possibility of female adolescents being married off before the minimum legal age, indicating that labour market participation is likely to reduce child marriage among them.