IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp3742.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child Labor Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Doepke, Matthias

    (Northwestern University)

  • Zilibotti, Fabrizio

    (Yale University)

Abstract

Child labor is a persistent phenomenon in many developing countries. In recent years, support has been growing among rich-country governments and consumer groups for the use of trade policies, such as product boycotts and the imposition of international labor standards, to reduce child labor in poor countries. In this paper, we discuss research on the long-run implications of such policies. In particular, we demonstrate that such measures may have the unintended side effect of lowering domestic support for banning child labor within developing countries, and thus may contribute to the persistence of the child-labor problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Doepke, Matthias & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2008. "International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child Labor Regulation," IZA Discussion Papers 3742, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3742
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp3742.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaushik Basu, 1999. "Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1083-1119, September.
    2. Matthias Doepke, "undated". "Origins and Consequences of Child Labor Restrictions: A Macroeconomic Perspective," UCLA Economics Online Papers 413, UCLA Department of Economics.
    3. Kaushik Basu, 1999. "International Labor Standards and Child Labor," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 80-93, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Development economics needs to refocus on theory
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-04-10 18:35:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Doepke, M. & Tertilt, M., 2016. "Families in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1789-1891, Elsevier.
    2. Maria Micaela Sviatschi, 2022. "Making a NARCO: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(4), pages 1835-1878, July.
    3. Congdon Fors, Heather, 2024. "Child Labour Background, Challenges, and the Role of Research in Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8.7," Working Papers in Economics 840, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    4. Fabre, Alice & Pallage, Stéphane, 2015. "Child labor, idiosyncratic shocks, and social policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 394-411.
    5. Heather Congdon Fors, 2012. "Child Labour: A Review Of Recent Theory And Evidence With Policy Implications," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 570-593, September.
    6. Soumya Sahin & Ambar Nath Ghosh, 2016. "Effect of Ban on Exports Containing Child Labour in a Dynamic Model in Presence of Imperfect Monitoring," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 51(1), pages 26-45, February.
    7. Eric V. Edmonds, 2014. "Does minimum age of employment regulation reduce child labor?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-73, July.
    8. Congdon Fors, Heather, 2012. "Social Globalization and Child Labor," Working Papers in Economics 533, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    9. Atul MEHTA & Joysankar BHATTACHARYA, 2019. "What discriminates the welfare outcomes of children in India. A multiple discriminant analysis in selected states," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(619), S), pages 261-276, Summer.
    10. Talia Bar & Kaushik Basu, 2009. "Children, Education, Labor, and Land: In The Long Run and Short Run," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 487-497, 04-05.
    11. Furio Camillo Rosati, 2022. "Child Labour Theories and Policies," CEIS Research Paper 533, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 15 Mar 2022.
    12. Kozhaya, Mireille & Martínez Flores, Fernanda, 2022. "Child Labor Bans, Employment, and School Attendance: Evidence from Changes in the Minimum Working Age," IZA Discussion Papers 15144, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Heather Congdon Fors, 2014. "Social Globalization and Child Labor: A Cross-country Analysis," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(2), pages 125-153, June.
    14. Kozhaya, Mireille & Martinez Flores, Fernanda, 2022. "Child labor bans, employment, and school attendance: Evidence from changes in the minimum working age," Ruhr Economic Papers 942, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    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. Simone D’Alessandro & Tamara Fioroni, 2016. "Child labour and inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 63-79, March.
    2. Dessy, Sylvain & Knowles, John, 2008. "Why is child labor illegal?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1275-1311, October.
    3. Matthias Doepke, 2013. "Exploitation, altruism, and social welfare," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 12(4), pages 375-391, November.
    4. Matthias Doepke & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2010. "Do international labor standards contribute to the persistence of the child-labor problem?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-31, March.
    5. Basu, Kaushik & Das, Sanghamitra & Dutta, Bhaskar, 2010. "Child labor and household wealth: Theory and empirical evidence of an inverted-U," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 8-14, January.
    6. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.
    7. Matthias Doepke, "undated". "Origins and Consequences of Child Labor Restrictions: A Macroeconomic Perspective," UCLA Economics Online Papers 413, UCLA Department of Economics.
    8. Carol Ann Rogers & Kenneth A. Swinnerton, 2008. "A theory of exploitative child labor," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 20-41, January.
    9. Menon, Nidhiya & Rodgers, Yana van der Meulen, 2018. "Child labor and the minimum wage: Evidence from India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 480-494.
    10. Gersbach, Hans & Siemers, Lars-H. R., 2010. "Land Reforms And Economic Development," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 527-547, September.
    11. Jihye Kim & Wendy Olsen & Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, 2020. "A Bayesian Estimation of Child Labour in India," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(6), pages 1975-2001, December.
    12. Sundaram, Aparna & Vanneman, Reeve, 2008. "Gender Differentials in Literacy in India: The Intriguing Relationship with Women's Labor Force Participation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 128-143, January.
    13. Christopher B. Barrett, 2005. "Rural poverty dynamics: development policy implications," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 45-60, January.
    14. Fabre, Alice & Pallage, Stéphane, 2015. "Child labor, idiosyncratic shocks, and social policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 394-411.
    15. Basu, Kaushik, 2003. "Policy Dilemmas for Controlling Child Labor," Working Papers 03-11, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
    16. Klymak, Margaryta, 2023. "The trade effects of information provision about forced and child labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 2007. "Scolarisation et travail des enfants : Un modèle économétrique à régimes endogènes appliqué à Madagascar - 2001-2005," Documents de travail 134, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    18. Doepke, Matthias, 2013. "Exploitation, Altruism, and Social Welfare: An Economic Exploration," CEPR Discussion Papers 9509, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Basu, Kaushik & Narayan, Ambar & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Is knowledge shared within households?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2261, The World Bank.
    20. Delprato, Marcos & Akyeampong, Kwame, 2019. "The effect of working on students’ learning in Latin America: Evidence from the learning survey TERCE," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-1.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    political economy; child labor; trade sanctions; international labor standards;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J88 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Public Policy
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Economic Logic blog

    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:iza:izadps:dp3742. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.