Is Child Labor Inefficient?
Top Cited Papers
- 1 August 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in Journal of Political Economy
- Vol. 108 (4) , 663-679
- https://doi.org/10.1086/316097
Abstract
We build a model of child labor and study its implications for welfare. We assume that there is a trade-off between child labor and the accumulation of human capital. Even if parents are altruistic and child labor is socially inefficient, it may arise in equilibrium because parents Fail to fully internalize its negative effects, This occurs when bequests are zero or when capital markers are imperfect. We also study the effects of a simple ban on child labor and derive conditions under which it may be Pareto improving in general equilibrium. We show that the implications of child labor for fertility are ambiguous.This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Child labour or school attendance? Evidence from ZambiaJournal of Population Economics, 1997
- Intergenerational Trade, Longevity, and Economic GrowthJournal of Political Economy, 1991
- A Fresh Look at the Rotten Kid Theorem--and Other Household MysteriesJournal of Political Economy, 1989
- A bequest-constrained economy: Welfare analysisJournal of Public Economics, 1988
- The Family and the StateThe Journal of Law and Economics, 1988
- The Old-Age Security Motive for FertilityPopulation and Development Review, 1985
- Child Labour, the Working-Class Family, and Domestic Ideology in 19th Century BritainDevelopment and Change, 1982
- Family Structure, Unemployment and Child Labour in JamaicaDevelopment and Change, 1982
- Intergenerational Transfers and the Distribution of EarningsEconometrica, 1981
- A Theory of Social InteractionsJournal of Political Economy, 1974