IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v110y2025ics0301420725002855.html

Allocating child labor in resource production to the global transport sector

Author

Listed:
  • Sugiyama, Tomoya
  • Zeng, Xianlai
  • Matsubae, Kazuyo

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 targets the eradication of child labor by 2050. Despite this goal, approximately 160 million children globally are engaged in child labor, with 79 million involved in hazardous work and 16.5 million in industrial sectors. Over a million children work in mining, which exposes them to significant health and safety risks and deprives them of educational opportunities. The anticipated increase in demand for minerals used in electric vehicles and batteries by 2040 will further elevate social risks in supply chains. This study quantifies the responsibility pathways of child labor within the transport equipment sectors in China, Germany, Japan, and the United States to enhance the management of human rights due to diligence. A multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model was developed to analyze child labor across agriculture, industry, and service categories, incorporating newly collected data on mining-related child labor. They also highlighted a significant link between child labor and gold mining operations. These findings underscore the urgent need to improve due diligence practices and investments in technologies that promote fair-trade and ethical sourcing. By recognizing interindustry connections and prioritizing ethical practices, this study establishes a foundation for future efforts to enhance transparency and sustainability in the transport equipment sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Sugiyama, Tomoya & Zeng, Xianlai & Matsubae, Kazuyo, 2025. "Allocating child labor in resource production to the global transport sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s0301420725002855
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420725002855
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105743?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. Mvile, Benatus Norbert & Bishoge, Obadia Kyetuza, 2024. "Mining and sustainable development goals in Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Hannah‐Jayne Shilling & Thomas Wiedmann & Arunima Malik, 2021. "Modern slavery footprints in global supply chains," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1518-1528, December.
    3. Mancini, Lucia & Eslava, Nicolas A. & Traverso, Marzia & Mathieux, Fabrice, 2021. "Assessing impacts of responsible sourcing initiatives for cobalt: Insights from a case study," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Jorge Gómez-Paredes & Eiji Yamasue & Hideyuki Okumura & Keiichi N. Ishihara, 2015. "The Labour Footprint: A Framework To Assess Labour In A Complex Economy," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 415-439, December.
    5. Oecd, 2024. "The interaction between competition and democracy," OECD Roundtables on Competition Policy Papers 316, OECD Publishing.
    6. Min, Hokey, 2019. "Blockchain technology for enhancing supply chain resilience," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 35-45.
    7. Giuliana Vinci & Marco Ruggeri & Laura Gobbi & Marco Savastano, 2024. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from Ivory Coast and Ghana," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Éléonore Lèbre & Martin Stringer & Kamila Svobodova & John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Claire Côte & Andrea Arratia-Solar & Rick K. Valenta, 2020. "The social and environmental complexities of extracting energy transition metals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    9. Mancini, Lucia & Sala, Serenella, 2018. "Social impact assessment in the mining sector: Review and comparison of indicators frameworks," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 98-111.
    10. Jorge Gómez-Paredes & Ali Alsamawi & Eiji Yamasue & Hideyuki Okumura & Keiichi N. Ishihara & Arne Geschke & Manfred Lenzen, 2016. "Consuming Childhoods: An Assessment of Child Labor's Role in Indian Production and Global Consumption," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 20(3), pages 611-622, June.
    11. Liu, Wenjuan & Agusdinata, Datu B. & Eakin, Hallie & Romero, Hugo, 2022. "Sustainable minerals extraction for electric vehicles: A pilot study of consumers’ perceptions of impacts," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Christof Weinhardt & Jonas Fegert & Oliver Hinz & Wil M. P. Aalst, 2024. "Digital Democracy: A Wake-Up Call," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 66(2), pages 127-134, April.
    13. Manfred Lenzen & Daniel Moran & Keiichiro Kanemoto & Arne Geschke, 2013. "Building Eora: A Global Multi-Region Input-Output Database At High Country And Sector Resolution," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 20-49, March.
    14. Amarpreet Singh Ghura & Abhishek, 2024. "Hearty Mart: Democratizing Corporate Entrepreneurship," Asian Case Research Journal (ACRJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 28(01), pages 39-62, March.
    15. Victor Maus & Tim T. Werner, 2024. "Impacts for half of the world’s mining areas are undocumented," Nature, Nature, vol. 625(7993), pages 26-29, January.
    16. Xiao, Yanyan & Norris, Catherine Benoît & Lenzen, Manfred & Norris, Gregory & Murray, Joy, 2017. "How Social Footprints of Nations Can Assist in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 55-65.
    17. Wiedmann, Thomas & Wilting, Harry C. & Lenzen, Manfred & Lutter, Stephan & Palm, Viveka, 2011. "Quo Vadis MRIO? Methodological, data and institutional requirements for multi-region input-output analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1937-1945, September.
    18. Bansal, Vaiddehi & Wallach, Jessica & Lira Brandão, Juliana & Lord, Sarah & Taha, Ninar & Akoglu, Tulay & Kiss, Ligia & Zimmerman, Cathy, 2023. "An intervention-focused review of modern slave labor in Brazil’s mining sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    19. Mario Martín-Gamboa & Paula Quinteiro & Ana Cláudia Dias & Diego Iribarren, 2021. "Comparative Social Life Cycle Assessment of Two Biomass-to-Electricity Systems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-15, May.
    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. Ángela García‐Alaminos & Fabio Monsalve & Jorge Zafrilla, 2024. "Disentangling social impacts in global value chains through structural path analysis: Investigating forced labor in the cotton industry," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(2), pages 303-319, April.
    2. Gholami, Alireza & Tokac, Batur & Zhang, Qian, 2024. "Knowledge synthesis on the mine life cycle and the mining value chain to address climate change," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Marcelo Fuentes & Moira Negrete & Sebastián Herrera‐León & Andrzej Kraslawski, 2024. "Links between the actors and mining activities related to the implementation of sustainable development principles," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6763-6787, December.
    4. Calvo-Calvo, Elena & Duarte, Rosa & Sarasa, Cristina, 2025. "Textile offshoring along global value chains (GVCs): Impacts on employment and gender wage gaps," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 122-132.
    5. Imbrogiano, Jean-Pierre & Steiner, Bodo & Mori Junior, Renzo & Sturman, Kathryn, 2023. "What enables metals ‘being’ ‘responsible’? An exploratory study on the enabling of organizational identity claims through a new sustainability standard," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Yafei Wang & Arne Geschke & Manfred Lenzen, 2017. "Constructing a Time Series of Nested Multiregion Input–Output Tables," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 40(5), pages 476-499, September.
    7. Dolter, Brett & Victor, Peter A., 2016. "Casting a long shadow: Demand-based accounting of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions responsibility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 156-164.
    8. Jingwen Huo & Peipei Chen & Klaus Hubacek & Heran Zheng & Jing Meng & Dabo Guan, 2022. "Full‐scale, near real‐time multi‐regional input–output table for the global emerging economies (EMERGING)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1218-1232, August.
    9. Federica Cerina & Zhen Zhu & Alessandro Chessa & Massimo Riccaboni, 2015. "World Input-Output Network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    10. Thomas Wiedmann & Heinz Schandl & Daniel Moran, 2015. "The footprint of using metals: new metrics of consumption and productivity," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(3), pages 369-388, July.
    11. Pomponi, Francesco & Hart, Jim, 2021. "The greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy – Life cycle assessment of a European pressurised reactor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    12. Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kucukvar, Murat, 2020. "Carbon footprint of construction industry: A global review and supply chain analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. Gudrun Franken & Philip Schütte, 2022. "Current trends in addressing environmental and social risks in mining and mineral supply chains by regulatory and voluntary approaches," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 35(3), pages 653-671, December.
    14. Paola Fezzigna & Simone Borghesi & Dario Caro, 2019. "Revising Emission Responsibilities through Consumption-Based Accounting: A European and Post-Brexit Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, January.
    15. Zheng, Haitao & Fang, Qi & Wang, Cheng & Jiang, Yunyun & Ren, Ruoen, 2018. "Updating China's input-output tables series using MTT method and its comparison," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 186-193.
    16. Bai, Yuzhe & Gu, Gaoxiang, 2025. "Dynamic change of transnational labour transfer embodied in trade and China’s participation from the perspective of global supply chains," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 928-943.
    17. Leonie Wenz & Anders Levermann & Sven Norman Willner & Christian Otto & Kilian Kuhla, 2020. "Post-Brexit no-trade-deal scenario: Short-term consumer benefit at the expense of long-term economic development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, September.
    18. Sylvain Weber & Reyer Gerlagh & Nicole A. Mathys & Daniel Moran, 2017. "CO2 embedded in trade: trends and fossil fuel drivers," Development Working Papers 413, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    19. Owen, Anne & Scott, Kate & Barrett, John, 2018. "Identifying critical supply chains and final products: An input-output approach to exploring the energy-water-food nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 632-642.
    20. Kasmaeeyazdi, Sara & Abdolmaleki, Mehdi & Ibrahim, Elsy & Jiang, Jingyi & Marzan, Ignacio & Rodríguez, Irene Benito, 2021. "Copernicus data to boost raw material source management: Illustrations from the RawMatCop programme," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:jrpoli:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s0301420725002855. 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/inca/30467 .

    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.