IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jda/journl/vol.44year2011issue1pp325-344.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A cross-national study of child labor and its determinants

Author

Listed:
  • Joelle Saad-Lessler

    (Long Island University, USA)

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of global child labor among countries with non-zero child labor rates. I find that the average child labor rate across countries rises with the size of the rural population, female labor force participation and fertility, whereas it falls with increases in GDP per capita, the share of public educational expenditures in gross national income, life expectancy and the share of the labor force in industry or agriculture. Over time, as GDP per capita rises and as trade expands, the child labor rate falls, whereas increases in the size of the rural population and in the female participation rate lead to increases in the child labor rate. Results indicate that the most effective ways to combat child labor are to increase GDP per capita, improve life expectancy, expand trade, increase spending on education and raise the GDP growth rate. Classification-JEL: J20, P51

Suggested Citation

  • Joelle Saad-Lessler, 2010. "A cross-national study of child labor and its determinants," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 44(1), pages 325-344, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:jda:journl:vol.44:year:2011:issue1:pp:325-344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_developing_areas/v044/44.1.saad-lessler.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Polyxeni Kechagia & Theodore Metaxas, 2023. "Capital Inflows and Working Children in Developing Countries: An Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Ralitza Dimova & Gil S. Epstein & Ira N. Gang, 2015. "Migration, Transfers and Child Labor," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 735-747, August.
    3. Sumbal Shahid & Rana Ejaz Ali Khan, 2020. "Informal Sector Economy, Child Labor and Economic Growth in Developing Economies: Exploring the Interlinkages," Asian Development Policy Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 8(4), pages 277-287, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child labor; fertility; GDP; female labor force;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    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:jda:journl:vol.44:year:2011:issue1:pp:325-344. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Abu N.M. Wahid (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbtnsus.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.