The Effects of Expanding Worker Rights to Children

Leah Lakdawala, Diana Martinez () and Diego Vera-Cossio ()
Additional contact information
Diana Martinez: UC San Diego, https://www.dianamartinezheredia.com/home
Diego Vera-Cossio: Inter-American Development Bank, https://sites.google.com/view/diegoveracossio/home

No 109, Working Papers from Wake Forest University, Economics Department

Abstract: One out of two working children worldwide works in hazardous conditions. We study the effects of a law that introduced benefits and protections for child workers and temporarily lowered the de facto legal working age from 14 to 10 in Bolivia. We employ a difference-in-discontinuity approach that exploits the variation in the law's application to different age groups. Work decreased for children under 14, whose work was newly legalized and regulated under the law, particularly in areas with a higher threat of inspections. The effects disappear after the law is reversed. We do not find evidence of improvements in work safety. Thus, the effects do not appear to be driven by increased hiring costs to ensure worker safety. Instead, the effects appear to be driven by a reduction in the most visible forms of child work, suggesting that firms and parents (households) may have reduced employment of young children to minimize the risk of being subject to legal and social sanctions.

Keywords: child labor; labor policy; labor regulation; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2024-07-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Journal Article: The effects of expanding worker rights to children (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:wfuewp:0109

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