Is Temporary Emigration of Unskilled Workers a Solution to the Child Labor Problem?

This chapter considers a 3 × 3 × 3 competitive general equilibrium framework of a small open economy which exports product produced by child labour. In the first part, we abstract from unemployment to begin with and assume that adult labour market maintains full employment. Our objectives have been to investigate the effectiveness of trade and non-trade policies in the presence of child labour problem and also to examine the impacts on national welfare and trade balance of such an economy. In particular, in this chapter, we have examined the effectiveness of three different kinds of policies on the incidence of child labour. Among these three, one is trade policy and the rest are non-trade policies. First part of this chapter reveals that economic expansion via increase in adult labour endowment is ineffective in curtailing the incidence of child labour. The other two policies seem to be efficient in this ground. However, any policy designed to control child labour incidence must have an impact on welfare and trade balance situation of the economy. Trade balance situation worsens in case of economic expansion via increase in domestic capital stock. However, the other non-trade policy leaves it as unchanged. But the impact is ambiguous for the case of trade policy. Again, welfare impact is positive only in case of economic expansion via increase in adult labour endowment but ambiguous in the other two cases. Hence, from the above analysis, we observe that none of the policies simultaneously can have favourable impact on child labour supply, trade balance and welfare of the small open economy. In part two of the chapter, we introduce unemployment problem in the adult labour market on one hand, and retain the existence of a child labour market on the other hand. The economy is divided into one rural and two urban sub-sectors. Four inputs are used in the model among which three are specific in nature. The representative adult worker in this model not only supplies his own labour but also sends his children out to work. Factor market distortion in this model is captured by the existence of a factor price differential between urban and rural sectors. The model is used to analyse the effects of imposition of various forms of trade restrictions on the unemployment of adult workers on the one hand and on the incidence of child labour on the other. Alternative trade policy prescriptions to combat child labour as well as adult market unemployment problem have been analysed. An interesting result obtained from the exercise of trade policy suggests that supply of child labour is shown to vary inversely with the level of unemployment in the adult labour market. In part three, we focus on an important non-trade policy, namely education subsidy to find its effects on the incidence of child labour.

Trade Liberalization and Child Labor in China

The persistence of child labor as a widespread global phenomenon is a result of the failure to challenge the conditions of economic injustice and child exploitation. Underlying this failure are...

We build up a simple overlapping generations’ model where parents derive utility from their children’s education and use this framework to understand and analyze the implications of a ban on exports with child labour content. Since perfect monitoring seems unrealistic, we develop a model with imperfect monitoring. The export industry is competitive and therefore zero-profit condition holds. The country under consideration is assumed to be a small open economy and therefore faces a fairly elastic demand. Then, a ban on child labour imposed by the importing countries will increase the cost of employing child labour and will discourage the producers in that sector to use child labour. The final effect on the incidence of child labour will however depend on whether the aggregate supply of unskilled labour by child workers in the pre-ban equilibrium situation is greater or less than the demand for unskilled labour in the import-competing sector.

PurposeChild labour in several low‐income households is rather pursued for gaining experience and at times for meagre incomes, which are possibly spent on household food expenditure. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the incidence of child labour and identifies the factors which explain participation of the children in the labour market. It also focuses on some of the outcomes of labour market participation of the children.Design/methodology/approachBased on the primary survey of the slum households in four Indian cities this paper applies certain quantitative techniques to estimate child labour and the factors that explain their participation in the labour market.FindingsThough the contribution made by the child labour to the overall well‐being does not turn out to be substantial, without child labour these households would have been much worse off than the households which can afford not to have child labour. The probability of working is higher for a male child compared to a girl child. This is because the girl children are often engaged in household activities and even when they are engaged in income earning jobs they are shown as helpers. Parents' income as such may not be having a positive impact on child's education.Originality/valueThe study is based on a primary survey. It employs certain indirect methods to arrive at a more realistic estimate of the incidence of child labour. Besides, it focuses on the quantitative methods to identify the factors that explain child labour. Finally the policy implications are brought out.

ABSTRACTThis article examines the ways in which the problem of child labour has been perceived and addressed, from the beginnings of social concern about these issues until the present, with illustrations from The Netherlands and Indonesia. National and international responses to the problem of child labour reflect a number of assumptions which are almost completely at odds with the views and the preferences of children themselves. Paradoxically, powerful lobbies in some of the world's wealthiest countries – which cannot enforce, and in some cases are beginning to relax, their own child labour laws – are trying to insist that the developing countries tighten and/or enforce their laws, under the threat of various forms of sanction or boycott. These increasingly active threats make it highly inadvisable for any exporting country to acknowledge the existence of children's employment at all, for example by protective legislation or other efforts to promote the improvement of children's working conditions.

This paper examines the issue of global child labor. The treatment is grounded in the classical economics of Adam smith and the more recent writings of human capital theorists. Using this framework, the universal problem of child labor in newly industrializing countries is investigated. Child labor is placed in its historical context with a brief review of practices in the United States and Great Britain at the time those countries were industrializing. Then, child labor is examined in its contemporary global context. We argue that, as countries industrialize, they tend to follow predictable patterns of development – including use of and eventual abandonment of child labor. We argue that this convergence under the logic of industrial capitalism supports a universalist approach to human rights (that would condemn child labor) over a more tolerant cultural relativist approach.

Objectives: Child labor is a problem that needs attention especially in developing countries The pandemic of Covid-19 has given it a spurt. Previously conducted studies on child labor remained focused on existence, causes and magnitude of this universal dilemma. Several measures at national and international level have been taken to eradicate it but could not get succeed fully. There is a need to explore the experiences and problems of working children from which they use to pass through. The needs of working children should get highlighted so that some suitable measures can be taken to make the condition better. However, this research is aimed to exploring psychological, physical, social, workplace, familial needs and problems faced by child labor further to find out some feasible alternative solutions. Design of the Study: Qualitative design and thematic analysis was used to compile results. Place and Duration: Working children in field were interviewed from two cities of Punjab Pakistan Multan and Jhung respectively from May 2022 to July 2022. Sample and Method: Total 19 working children including two girls under the age limit of 16 have interviewed from different workplaces as workshops, hospital, hotel and tea stall. Purposive sampling technique was used to include participants. Semi structured interviews have conducted with participant’s consent. Results and Conclusion: Data has been analyzed through method of thematic analysis. Eight super themes have been derived namely “Covid closure, low income cause of work and children’s will”, “Personal needs, beating, and poverty creates sadness”, “Face familial health problems, family disputes and financial problems”, “Scolding and beating at workplace and from general people”, “We are okay as we are, have no other solutions except Allah or hard work”, “Like study but need financial support and teacher’s good behavior in school and awareness”, “Work adjustment with time, social examples and personal experiences forms concepts about education job and work”, “Earning, exposure, supportive behavior of family and work master creates happiness and develops a sense of responsibility” from the gathered data. The present study highlights the experiences, needs and problems of child labor.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of globalization and credit market imperfections on child labour.Design/methodology/approachAnalysis is based on cross-country regression framework, incorporating 129 developing countries for the period 1970-2010.FindingsThe findings indicate that countries that are more open to trade and having higher foreign direct investment inflow have lower incidence of child labour. As child labour in export-related industries is hard to find, trade sanctions may not have a significant effect on child labour. Further study concludes that income of the bottom quartile of the population is the best representation of the income of the poor when studying child labour.Research limitations/implicationsThe study uses the data compiled by International Labour Organization (ILO). Though much of the variation in the data is because of the adjustments made by ILO, this is the only comparable cross-country estimates available. Hence in the absence of the cross-country comparable estimates, many empirical studies have used this data set (e.g. Cigno et al., 2002; Dehejia and Gatti, 2002; Rogers and Swinnerton, 2001). This study acknowledges this limitation but again in the absence of any comparable estimates, the assessment is also based on this data set.Originality/valueStudy contributes in the literature by comparing the effect of export and trade and by exploring the effect of an alternate measure of the income, estimated by using Gini coefficient, on child labour. Further studies exploring the effect of globalization did not explore the presence of imperfect credit market, however, this study has explored the effect of credit market imperfections as well.

Injuries to construction laborers

The Third World cities have been reinvented by the forces of globalization as the destinations of new investments, causing the migration of a teeming million to the major urban centers without any corresponding increase in the creation of new jobs and other basic amenities required for decent living. The problem of child labor has also been exacerbated to an unprecedented level in the urban areas of the Third World countries during this period. Yet the dominant discourses on this problem have come from the Western observers or have some prior Western presence in its understanding of the problem, which defers the Third Worldly understanding of the situation. The author argues that a paradigm shift is needed to incorporate various local discourses in order to effectively address the problem of child labor. Based on a decade of fieldwork among the poor and marginalized population in the city of Kolkata, Child Labor and the Urban Third World will give readers an idea of how this problem has become inextricably bound with various other local conditions, such as the security of tenure in the houses.

Does child labour increase unemployment and reduce labour force participation? Empirical evidence from Jordan

Birth Order, Child Labor, and School Attendance in Brazil

ABSTRACTThe problem of child labor is worse in Myanmar than nearly anywhere else in the world. Moreover, unlike in many other countries where this practice occurs, in Myanmar, child labor is conducted openly and is widely socially accepted. While one of the driving factors behind the practice is, unsurprisingly, poverty, here I will demonstrate that other reasons contribute as well. Drawing on my own field research interviews conducted in December 2017, as well as philosophical analysis, I show that these reasons include, in addition to poverty, poor quality of public education, deeply rooted, strategic injustice in the form of an unfair matriculation exam, and gender inequity in the job market. By wedding theoretical inquiry with empirical investigation, I aim to both explicate the problem and to propose potential solutions.

Will trade sanctions reduce child labour?: The role of credit markets