The Short- and Longer-Term Effects of a Child Labor Ban

Caio Piza, André Souza, Patrick M Emerson and Vivian Amorim

The World Bank Economic Review, 2024, vol. 38, issue 2, 351-370

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the 1998 Brazilian law that increased the minimum employment age from 14 to 16 lowered child labor and increased school attendance and whether those effects persisted beyond age 16. Using a regression discontinuity design, the results indicate that the ban had a significant impact on urban boys, a cohort that represents half of all paid child labor in Brazil. This cohort had a 35 percent decrease in paid labor, driven mainly by a decrease in informal work, and an 11 percent increase in the share of those only attending school. In addition, there is evidence that these effects persist past the age of enforcement where the affected cohort was less likely to work and more likely to be only attending school beyond age 16. Overall, the results suggest that enforced bans on child labor can have significant immediate and persistent impacts on affected populations.

Keywords: child labor; regression discontinuity; local randomization; minimum employment age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Short- And Longer-Term Effects of a Child Labor Ban (2022)
Working Paper: Short and long-term effects of a child-labor ban (2016)
Working Paper: Short- and long-term effects of a child-labor ban (2016)
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