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Why Should We Care About Child Labor? The Education, Labor Market, and Health Consequences of Child Labor

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Author Info
Kathleen Beegle
Rajeev Dehejia
Roberta Gatti

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Abstract

Although there is an extensive literature on the determinants of child labor and many initiatives aimed at combating it, there is limited evidence on the consequences of child labor on socio-economic outcomes such as education, wages, and health. We evaluate the causal effect of child labor participation on these outcomes using panel data from Vietnam and an instrumental variables strategy. Five years subsequent to the child labor experience, we find significant negative impacts on school participation and educational attainment, but also find substantially higher earnings for those (young) adults who worked as children. We find no significant effects on health. Over a longer horizon, we estimate that from age 30 onward the forgone earnings attributable to lost schooling exceed any earnings gain associated with child labor and that the net present discounted value of child labor is positive for discount rates of 11.5 percent or higher. We show that child labor is prevalent among households likely to have higher borrowing costs, that are farther from schools, and whose adult members experienced negative returns to their own education. This evidence suggests that reducing child labor will require facilitating access to credit and will also require households to be forward looking.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10980.

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Date of creation: Dec 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10980

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition
O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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  1. Edmonds, Eric & Turk, Carrie, 2002. "Child labor in transition in Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2774, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Heady, Christopher, 2003. "The Effect of Child Labor on Learning Achievement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 385-398, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
  4. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
  6. Kathleen Beegle & Rajeev Dehejia & Roberta Gatti, 2003. "Child Labor, Crop Shocks, and Credit Constraints," NBER Working Papers 10088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. L.Guarcello & F.Mealli & F.Rosati, 2002. "Household Vulnerability and Child Labour: the Effect of Shocks, Credit Rationing and Insurance," UCW Working Paper 3, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Project). [Downloadable!]
  8. Eric V. Edmonds, 2007. "Child Labor," IZA Discussion Papers 2606, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  9. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G. & King, Elizabeth M., 2001. "Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 345-368, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. O.O'Donnell & F.Rosati & E.van Doorslaer, 2003. "Health Effects of Children's Work: Evidence from Vietnam," UCW Working Paper 2, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Project). [Downloadable!]
  11. Edmonds & Eric V., 2004. "Household composition and the response of child labor supply to product market integration: evidence from Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3235, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  12. Alan Krueger & Orley Ashenfelter, 1992. "Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins," NBER Working Papers 4143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Psacharopoulos, George & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2002. "Returns to investment in education : a further update," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2881, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 1997. "Family size, schooling and child labor in Peru - An empirical analysis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 387-405. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Angrist, Joshua D, 1990. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 313-36, June.
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  17. FurioCamillo Rosati & Zafiris Tzannatos, 2006. "Child Labour In Vietnam," Pacific Economic Review, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Zeldes, Stephen P, 1989. "Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(2), pages 305-46, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Edmonds & Eric V. & Pavcnik, Nina, 2004. "Product market integration and household labor supply in a poor economy: evidence from Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3234, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  20. Sonia Bhalotra & Christopher Heady, 2003. "Child Farm Labor: The Wealth Paradox," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 197-227, December.
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  21. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt, 2002. "Agriculture and Income Distribution in Rural Vietnam under Economic Reforms: A Tale of Two Regions," Working Papers benjamin-02-01, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  22. Moock, Peter R. & Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Venkataraman, Meera, 2003. "Education and earnings in a transition economy: the case of Vietnam," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 503-510, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Diana Hincapié, 2007. "El trabajo infanto-juvenil y el estado nutricional de los menores colombianos," REVISTA DESARROLLO Y SOCIEDAD, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE. [Downloadable!]
  2. Claus Portner, 2006. "Gone With the Wind? Hurricane Risk, Fertility and Education," Working Papers UWEC-2006-19-R, University of Washington, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2008. [Downloadable!]
  3. Cardoso, Ana Rute & Verner, Dorte, 2007. "School drop-out and push-out factors in Brazil : the role of early parenthood, child labor, and poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4178, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Christelle Dumas, 2008. "Does work impede child's learning? The case of Senegal," THEMA Working Papers 2008-01, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise. [Downloadable!]
  5. Aditi Roy, 2009. "Is Child Work Injurious to Health?," Departmental Working Papers 0905, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Del Carpio, Ximena V., 2008. "Does child labor always decrease with income ? an evaluation in the context of a development program in Nicaragua," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4694, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Jo Boyden, 2007. "Questioning the Power of Resilience:Are Children Up To the Task of Disrupting the Transmission of Poverty?," Working Papers id:1053, esocialsciences.com. [Downloadable!]
  8. 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. [Downloadable!]
  9. Beegle, Kathleen & Dehejia, Rajeev H. & Gatti, Roberta & Krutikova, Sofya, 2008. "The consequences of child labor : evidence from longitudinal data in rural Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4677, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  10. Claus C Pörtner, 2009. "Children's Time Allocation, Heterogeneity and Simultaneous Decisions," Working Papers UWEC-2009-15, University of Washington, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-25.

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