Child Labor

Christopher Udry

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: Child labor exists because it is the best response people can find in intolerable circumstances. Poverty and child labor are mutually reinforcing: because their parents are poor, children must work and not attend school, and then grow up poor. Child labor has two important special features. First, when financial markets are imperfect, the separation in time between the immediate benefits and longdelayed costs of sending children to work lead to too much child labor. Second, the costs and benefits of child labor are borne by different people. Targeted subsidies for school attendance are very effective in reducing child labor because they successfully address both of these problems.

Keywords: child labor; human capital; household economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2003-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp856.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Child Labor (2004)
Working Paper: Child Labor (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:856

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