IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ctl/louvec/2005040.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mortality risks and child labor

Author

Listed:
  • Fernanda, ESTEVAN
  • Jean-Marie, BALAND

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the role of young adult mortality on child labor and educational decisions. We show that, in the absence of appropriate insurance mechanisms, the level of child labor is inefficient. It may be too high if parents are not very altruistic and anticipate positive transfers from their children in the future, but it can also be too low, in particular when parents expect to make positive transfers to their children in the future. Imperfect capital markets unambiguously increase the equilibrium level of child labor. We also show that a cash transfer conditional on child’s schooling can always restore efficiency regarding child labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernanda, ESTEVAN & Jean-Marie, BALAND, 2005. "Mortality risks and child labor," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2005040, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/2005-40.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Razin, Assaf, 1976. "Lifetime Uncertainty, Human Capital and Physical Capital," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(3), pages 439-448, September.
    2. Jean-Marie Baland & James A. Robinson, 2000. "Is Child Labor Inefficient?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 663-679, August.
    3. Levhari, David & Weiss, Yoram, 1974. "The Effect of Risk on the Investment in Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 950-963, December.
    4. Eric V. Edmonds, 2004. "Does Illiquidity Alter Child Labor and Schooling Decisions? Evidence from Household Responses to Anticipated Cash Transfers in South Africa," NBER Working Papers 10265, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Basu, Kaushik & Van, Pham Hoang, 1998. "The Economics of Child Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 412-427, June.
    6. Pouliot, William, 2006. "Introducing uncertainty into Baland and Robinson's model of child labour," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 264-272, February.
    7. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5.
    8. Ravallion, Martin & Wodon, Quentin, 2000. "Does Child Labour Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioural Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 158-175, March.
    9. George Psacharopoulos, 1997. "Child labor versus educational attainment Some evidence from Latin America," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(4), pages 377-386.
    10. Holger Strulik, 2004. "Child mortality, child labour and economic development," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 547-568, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Estevan, Fernanda & Baland, Jean-Marie, 2007. "Mortality risks, education and child labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 118-137, September.
    2. Sonia Bhalotra, 2007. "Is Child Work Necessary?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(1), pages 29-55, February.
    3. Strulik, Holger, 2008. "The Role of Poverty and Community Norms in Child Labor and Schooling Decisions," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Zurich 2008 42, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    4. Holger Strulik, 2013. "School Attendance And Child Labor—A Model Of Collective Behavior," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 246-277, April.
    5. Eric V. Edmonds & Nina Pavcnik, 2005. "Child Labor in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 199-220, Winter.
    6. Kimhi, Ayal, 2007. "Does Land Reform In Transition Countries Increase Child Labor? Evidence From The Republic Of Georgia," Discussion Papers 7147, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    7. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M. Stern, 2009. "The Effects of Multinational Production on Wages and Working Conditions in Developing Countries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization And International Trade Policies, chapter 17, pages 623-687, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Francesco Grigoli & Giacomo Sbrana, 2013. "Determinants And Dynamics Of Schooling And Child Labour In Bolivia," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65, pages 17-37, May.
    9. Cigno, Alessandro, 2010. "How to Deal with Covert Child Labour, and Give Children an Effective Education, in a Poor Developing Country : An Optimal Taxation Problem with Moral Hazard," PIE/CIS Discussion Paper 474, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    10. Hazarika, Gautam & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2008. "Household Access to Microcredit and Child Work in Rural Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 843-859, May.
    11. Edmonds, Eric V., 2008. "Child Labor," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 57, pages 3607-3709, Elsevier.
    12. Eric V. Edmonds & Norbert Schady, 2012. "Poverty Alleviation and Child Labor," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 100-124, November.
    13. Jorge Valero‐Gil & Magali Valero, 2022. "Why has there been a fall in child labour and an increase in school attendance in Mexico?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(6), November.
    14. Victoria Gunnarsson & Peter F. Orazem & Mario A. Sánchez, 2006. "Child Labor and School Achievement in Latin America," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 31-54.
    15. Edgar Vogel, 2009. "From Malthus to modern growth: child labor, schooling and human capital," MEA discussion paper series 09180, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    16. Vogel, Edgar, 2008. "From Malthus to modern growth : child labor, schooling and human capital," Papers 08-42, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    17. Lutfullah Lutf & Shahadat I Haq Yasini, 2018. "Factors Contributing to Child Labor in Afghanistan: A Case Study in Jalalabad City," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 3, pages 348-372, September.
    18. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M Stern, 2001. "Child Labor: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," Working Papers 474, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    19. Alice FABRE & Emmanuelle AUGERAUD-VERON, 2004. "Education, Poverty and Child Labour," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 738, Econometric Society.
    20. repec:fgv:epgrbe:v:66:n:4:a:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Emerson, Patrick M. & Portela Souza, Andre, 2005. "The inter-generational persistence of child labor," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 32746, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005040. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Virginie LEBLANC (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.