IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/jeurec/v7y2009i2-3p498-507.html

Child Labor and Schooling in A Globalizing World: Some Evidence from Urban India

Author

Listed:
  • Eric V. Edmonds
  • Nina Pavcnik
  • Petia Topalova

Abstract

Trade influences child time allocation in developing countries through its effects on the returns to education, labor demand, and poverty. We examine how India's dramatic 1991 trade liberalization influenced child labor and schooling in urban areas of India that differ in the extent to which employment lost tariff protection. In general, urban India experienced large increases in schooling and decreases in child labor over the 1990s. We find that these improvements are attenuated in Indian cities where employment experienced larger reductions in tariff protection. Girls are particularly affected. We argue that the observed changes in child time allocation are consistent with differential declines in poverty across regions, but changes in the economic opportunities of children might also play a role in our findings. (JEL: F15, F16) (c) 2009 by the European Economic Association.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric V. Edmonds & Nina Pavcnik & Petia Topalova, 2009. "Child Labor and Schooling in A Globalizing World: Some Evidence from Urban India," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 498-507, 04-05.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:jeurec:v:7:y:2009:i:2-3:p:498-507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1542-4774/issues
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Mingzhi Xu, 2020. "Globalization, the skill premium, and income distribution: the role of selection into entrepreneurship," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 633-668, August.
    2. Sarra Ben Yahmed & Pamela Bombarda, 2020. "Gender, Informal Employment and Trade Liberalization in Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 259-283.
    3. Emily Blanchard & William W. Olney, 2013. "Globalization and Human Capital Investment: How Export Composition Drives Educational Attainment," Department of Economics Working Papers 2013-18, Department of Economics, Williams College, revised Mar 2015.
    4. Vincent Bignon & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2025. "The toll of tariffs: The impact of protectionism on education and fertility in late 19th century France," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 461-495, December.
    5. Mehdi Feizi & Saeed Malek Sadati & Mozhgan Asna-ashary, 2023. "Child Labor and Unemployment: a Tale of Two Associations in Urban and Rural Areas in Iran," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(3), pages 1297-1314, June.
    6. Ashmita Gupta & Neha Hui, 2025. "Does Liberalisation Reduce Labour Market Inequality? Caste and Occupational Outcomes in India," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2025-05, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    7. Kevin Williams, 2023. "Does trade shape educational decisions? The role of initial schooling," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3631-3663, October.
    8. Bøler, Esther Ann & Javorcik, Beata & Ulltveit-Moe, Karen Helene, 2018. "Working across time zones: Exporters and the gender wage gap," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 122-133.
    9. Cristian Ugarte & Marcelo Olarreaga & Gady Saiovici, 2023. "Child labour and global value chains," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 941-968, April.
    10. Malin Niemi & Nicklas Nordfors & Anna Tompsett, 2025. "Trade and pollution: Evidence from India," Papers 2502.09289, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    11. Sofía Fernández Guerrico, 2023. "Trade Shocks, Population Growth, and Migration," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/357236, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Majlesi, Kaveh, 2014. "Demand for Low-Skilled Labor and Parental Investment in Children's Education: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2014:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    13. Azam, Mehtabul, 2022. "Trade Liberalization and Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Indian Census," IZA Discussion Papers 15286, IZA Network @ LISER.
    14. Blanchard, Emily J. & Olney, William W., 2017. "Globalization and human capital investment: Export composition drives educational attainment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 165-183.
    15. Nina Pavcnik, 2017. "The Impact of Trade on Inequality in Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 23878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Faqin Lin, 2022. "Agriculture exports, child labor and youth education: Evidence from 68 developing countries," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 490-513, May.
    17. Yao Pan & Jessica Leight, 2021. "Educational Responses to Migration-Augmented Export Shocks: Evidence from China," Working Papers 2021-14, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    18. Pavcnik, Nina & Goldberg, Pinelopi, 2016. "The Effects of Trade Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 11104, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    19. Gu, Grace Weishi & Malik, Samreen & Pozzoli, Dario & Rocha, Vera, 2016. "Trade Induced Skill Upgrading: Lessons from the Danish and Portuguese Experiences," IZA Discussion Papers 10035, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Yan, Wenshou & Song, Qiaoyin & Hu, Lin & Xue, Wenmei, 2025. "Does trade openness affect educational attainment? Insights from 25 years of research," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    21. Ahsan, Reshad N. & Chatterjee, Arpita, 2017. "Trade liberalization and intergenerational occupational mobility in urban India," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 138-152.
    22. Blanchard, Emily & Willmann, Gerald, 2016. "Trade, education, and the shrinking middle class," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 263-278.
    23. Molina, Teresa & Vidiella-Martin, Joaquim, 2021. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Labor Market Conditions," IZA Discussion Papers 14667, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

    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:tpr:jeurec:v:7:y:2009:i:2-3:p:498-507. 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: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    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.