International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child Labor Regulation

Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti

No 3742, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Child labor is a persistent phenomenon in many developing countries. In recent years, support has been growing among rich-country governments and consumer groups for the use of trade policies, such as product boycotts and the imposition of international labor standards, to reduce child labor in poor countries. In this paper, we discuss research on the long-run implications of such policies. In particular, we demonstrate that such measures may have the unintended side effect of lowering domestic support for banning child labor within developing countries, and thus may contribute to the persistence of the child-labor problem.

Keywords: political economy; child labor; trade sanctions; international labor standards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J20 J88 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-lab and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2009, 7(2-3), 508- 518

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Related works:
Journal Article: International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child-Labor Regulation (2009)
Working Paper: International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child Labor Regulation (2009)
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