 Contextualizing child labor reforms: Education policy, legal bans, and female child labor in rural South IndiaAlberto Posso Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 235, issue C Abstract: The prevailing consensus in the economics literature suggests that child labor laws are generally ineffective. However, this view often overlooks the broader policy context that shapes such reforms. India's 2012 Child Labor Amendment Act emerged after a period of significant reform aimed at improving girls' education, particularly through the 2009 education reforms. This paper sustains that these reforms potentially altered societal perceptions regarding the marginal value of girls' education, while the Child Labor Act highlighted the hazards of child labor in agriculture. Together, these measures may have created a more favorable environment for reducing rural female child labor. Using panel data from Young Lives and a triple difference-in-difference methodology, this study documents a significant reduction in female child labor in rural India. The findings highlight the importance of contextualizing legal reforms and emphasize the need for nuanced assessments to better understand their heterogeneous outcomes. Keywords: Child labor; Child labor laws; Behavioral change; Education; Gendered responses; India (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:235:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125001702 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107051 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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