EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

ON THE DISTRIBUTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION

Dirk Krueger and Jessica Tjornhom Donohue

International Economic Review, 2005, vol. 46, issue 3, 785-815

Abstract: This article studies the effects of child labor legislation on human capital accumulation and the distribution of wealth and welfare. We calibrate our model to U.S. data circa 1880 and find that the consequences of restricting child labor or providing tax-financed education depend on the main source of individual household income. Households with significant financial assets unambiguously lose from government intervention, whereas high-wage workers benefit most from a child labor ban, and low-wage workers benefit most from free education. Introducing free education results in substantial welfare gains, whereas a child labor ban induces small welfare losses. Copyright 2005 by the Economics Department Of The University Of Pennsylvania And Osaka University Institute Of Social And Economic Research Association.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: On The Distributional Consequences Of Child Labor Legislation (2007) Downloads
Working Paper: On the Distributional Consequences of Child Labor Legislation (2004) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:46:y:2005:i:3:p:785-815

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0020-6598

Access Statistics for this article

International Economic Review is currently edited by Harold L. Cole

More articles in International Economic Review from Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association 160 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing () and ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:46:y:2005:i:3:p:785-815