IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v235y2025ics0167268125001702.html

Contextualizing child labor reforms: Education policy, legal bans, and female child labor in rural South India

Author

Listed:
  • Posso, Alberto

Abstract

The prevailing consensus in the economics literature suggests that child labor laws are generally ineffective. However, this view often overlooks the broader policy context that shapes such reforms. India's 2012 Child Labor Amendment Act emerged after a period of significant reform aimed at improving girls' education, particularly through the 2009 education reforms. This paper sustains that these reforms potentially altered societal perceptions regarding the marginal value of girls' education, while the Child Labor Act highlighted the hazards of child labor in agriculture. Together, these measures may have created a more favorable environment for reducing rural female child labor. Using panel data from Young Lives and a triple difference-in-difference methodology, this study documents a significant reduction in female child labor in rural India. The findings highlight the importance of contextualizing legal reforms and emphasize the need for nuanced assessments to better understand their heterogeneous outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Posso, Alberto, 2025. "Contextualizing child labor reforms: Education policy, legal bans, and female child labor in rural South India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:235:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125001702
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268125001702
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107051?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Edmonds & Maheshwor Shrestha, 2012. "The impact of minimum age of employment regulation on child labor and schooling ," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, December.
    2. J. P. Florens & J. J. Heckman & C. Meghir & E. Vytlacil, 2008. "Identification of Treatment Effects Using Control Functions in Models With Continuous, Endogenous Treatment and Heterogeneous Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(5), pages 1191-1206, September.
    3. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.
    4. 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.
    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. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:p:73 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Liyang Sun & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2022. "A Linear Panel Model with Heterogeneous Coefficients and Variation in Exposure," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 193-204, Fall.
    8. Laura Alfaro & Anusha Chari, 2014. "Deregulation, Misallocation, and Size: Evidence from India," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(4), pages 897-936.
    9. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    10. Prashant Bharadwaj & Leah K Lakdawala & Nicholas Li, 2020. "Perverse Consequences of Well Intentioned Regulation: Evidence from India’s Child Labor Ban," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1158-1195.
    11. Liyang Sun & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2022. "A linear panel model with heterogeneous coe!cients and variation in exposure," Economics Virtual Symposium 2022 01, Stata Users Group.
    12. Manisha Shah & Bryce Steinberg, 2019. "The Right to Education Act: Trends in Enrollment, Test Scores, and School Quality," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 232-238, May.
    13. Andreas Olden & Jarle Møen, 2022. "The triple difference estimator [Semiparametric difference-in-differences estimators]," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 531-553.
    14. Eric V. Edmonds, 2014. "Does minimum age of employment regulation reduce child labor?," World of Labour, LISER, pages 1-73, July.
    15. Augendra Bhukuth, 2008. "Defining child labour: a controversial debate," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 385-394, June.
    16. Alberto Posso & Udeni De Silva Perera & Ankita Mishra, 2021. "Community‐level health programs and child labor: Evidence from Ethiopia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 2995-3015, December.
    17. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2004. "Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 91-134.
    18. Timothy G. Conley & Christian B. Hansen & Peter E. Rossi, 2012. "Plausibly Exogenous," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 260-272, February.
    19. Michael Keane & Sonya Krutikova & Timothy Neal, 2022. "Child work and cognitive development: Results from four low to middle income countries," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(2), pages 425-465, May.
    20. Chiodi, Vera. & Escudero, Verónica., 2020. "More is more livelihood interventions and child labor in the agricultural sector," ILO Working Papers 995106391502676, International Labour Organization.
    21. Eric V. Edmonds & Maheshwor Shrestha, 2012. "The Impact of Minimum Age of Employment Regulation on Child Labor and Schooling: Evidence from UNICEF MICS Countries," NBER Working Papers 18623, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Alberto Abadie, 2021. "Using Synthetic Controls: Feasibility, Data Requirements, and Methodological Aspects," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 391-425, June.
    23. Dennis Coates, 2003. "Education production functions using instructional time as an input," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 273-292.
    24. Joshua Angrist & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    25. Simon Feeny & Alberto Posso & Ahmed Skali & Amalendu Jyotishi & Shyam Nath & P. K. Viswanathan, 2021. "Child labor and psychosocial wellbeing: Findings from India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 876-902, April.
    26. Juan M. Villa, 2016. "diff: Simplifying the estimation of difference-in-differences treatment effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 16(1), pages 52-71, March.
    27. repec:fth:prinin:455 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Posso, Alberto, 2017. "Child Labour's effect on long-run earnings: An analysis of cohorts," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 465-472.
    29. Posso, Alberto, 2023. "Bilingual education and child labor: Lessons from Peru," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 840-872.
    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. Posso, Alberto, 2023. "Bilingual education and child labor: Lessons from Peru," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 840-872.
    2. Olivier Bargain & Delphine Boutin, 2021. "Minimum Age Regulation and Child Labor: New Evidence from Brazil," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(1), pages 234-260.
    3. Lakdawala, Leah K. & Martínez Heredia, Diana & Vera-Cossio, Diego A., 2023. "The Impact of Expanding Worker Rights to Informal Workers Evidence from Child Labor Legislation," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12705, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Lakdawala, Leah K. & Heredia, Diana Martínez & Vera-Cossio, Diego, 2025. "The effects of expanding worker rights to children," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Cepaluni, Gabriel & Chewning, Taylor Kinsley & Driscoll, Amanda & Faganello, Marco Antonio, 2022. "Conditional cash transfers and child labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    6. Caio Piza & André Portela Souza & Patrick M Emerson & Vivian Amorim, 2024. "The Short- and Longer-Term Effects of a Child Labor Ban," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 351-370.
    7. Lee, Jieun & Kim, Hyoungjong & Rhee, Dong-Eun, 2021. "No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Rietveld, Cornelius A. & Webbink, Dinand, 2016. "On the genetic bias of the quarter of birth instrument," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 137-146.
    9. Mont, Daniel & Nguyen, Cuong, 2013. "Does Parental Disability Matter to Child Education? Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 88-107.
    10. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    11. Nidhiya Menon, 2010. "Got Technology? The Impact of Computers and Cell-phones on Productivity in a Difficult Business Climate: Evidence from Firms with Female Owners in Kenya," Working Papers 21, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    12. Prashant Bansode, 2013. "Perverse Consequences of Well Intentioned Regulation: Evidence from India's Child Labor Ban," Working Papers id:5555, eSocialSciences.
    13. Ding, Yawen & Wang, Xiaobing & de Brauw, Alan & Qiu, Huanguang, 2024. "Catch up with my husband as I can: Women’s decision-making power consequences of China’s poverty alleviation relocation program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    14. Sascha O. Becker, 2016. "Using instrumental variables to establish causality," World of Labour, LISER, pages 250-250, April.
    15. Dagim Dawit Gonsamo & Herman Hay Ming Lo & Ko Ling Chan, 2021. "The Role of Stomach Infrastructures on Children’s Work and Child Labour in Africa: Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-26, August.
    16. 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, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Mariana VIOLLAZ, 2018. "Are labour inspections effective when labour regulations vary according to the size of the firm? Evidence from Peru," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 157(2), pages 213-242, June.
    18. Ryan M. Abman & Clark C. Lundberg & John McLaren & Michele Ruta, 2023. "Child Labor Standards in Regional Trade Agreements: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 30908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Prashant Bharadwaj & Leah K Lakdawala & Nicholas Li, 2020. "Perverse Consequences of Well Intentioned Regulation: Evidence from India’s Child Labor Ban," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1158-1195.
    20. Sungho Park & Sachin Gupta, 2012. "Handling Endogenous Regressors by Joint Estimation Using Copulas," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 567-586, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:eee:jeborg:v:235:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125001702. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.