Child Labor Standards in Regional Trade Agreements
This paper studies the impact of child labor standards in regional trade agreements on a variety of child labor market outcomes, including employment, education, and household inequality. It develops a stylized general equilibrium model of child labor in an economy open to international trade and considers the impact of regional trade agreements with and without child labor bans. The paper empirically investigates the effects of these clauses in trade agreements in a broad international panel of 101 developing countries, using harmonized survey microdata. Exploiting quasi-experimental methods to obtain plausibly causal estimates, the analysis finds that regional trade agreements without child-labor bans lead to reductions in child employment and increases in school enrollment, particularly for older children aged 14–17 years. Child labor bans in regional trade agreements perversely increase employment of children aged 14–17 years and decrease school enrollment for both young and older children. These effects appear to decrease inter-household income inequality through increased child earnings. The findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions from the model and the literature on child labor bans.
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2023-03-01T21:40:10Z
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| Subjects: | LABOR MARKETS, CHILD LABOR BAN MICRODATA, CHILD LABOR, REGIONAL TRACE AGREEMENTS, TRADE LIBERALIZATION, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099936202282351628/IDU03cd56b1b0fad904bda0ac8a03363b9ea0b98 https://worldbank7-prod.atmire.com/handle/10986/39488 |
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| Summary: | This paper studies the impact of
child labor standards in regional trade agreements on a
variety of child labor market outcomes, including
employment, education, and household inequality. It develops
a stylized general equilibrium model of child labor in an
economy open to international trade and considers the impact
of regional trade agreements with and without child labor
bans. The paper empirically investigates the effects of
these clauses in trade agreements in a broad international
panel of 101 developing countries, using harmonized survey
microdata. Exploiting quasi-experimental methods to obtain
plausibly causal estimates, the analysis finds that regional
trade agreements without child-labor bans lead to reductions
in child employment and increases in school enrollment,
particularly for older children aged 14–17 years. Child
labor bans in regional trade agreements perversely increase
employment of children aged 14–17 years and decrease school
enrollment for both young and older children. These effects
appear to decrease inter-household income inequality through
increased child earnings. The findings are consistent with
the theoretical predictions from the model and the
literature on child labor bans. |
|---|