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Child Labor and Economic Development

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Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

Abstract

Two hundred and eighteen million children work in the world today. Seventy percent are in activities classified as child labor under local laws. While in policy circles child labor is often viewed as a rights issue, it is also an economic issue. Working children are both a cause and a consequence of a lack of economic development. Widespread child employment dampers future economic growth through its negative impact on child development and depresses current growth by reducing unskilled wages and discouraging the adoption of skill-intensive technologies. Child employment also appears to result from a lack of economic growth. Rising incomes are associated with improvements in the family’s ability to triage economic shocks without child labor, shifts in production to outside of the home, and greater demand for education and leisure. These factors all lead to declines in the economic activity of children.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

    Eric V. Edmonds

  2. Department of Economics, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA

    Caroline Theoharides

Authors
  1. Eric V. Edmonds
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  2. Caroline Theoharides
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Correspondence to Eric V. Edmonds .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty Of Economics And Administration, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    M. Niaz Asadullah

  2. Centre on Skills, Knowledge & Organisational Performance, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    M. Niaz Asadullah

  3. Dept of Economics, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    M. Niaz Asadullah

  4. School of Education, Environment and Development (SEED),, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    M. Niaz Asadullah

  5. IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany

    M. Niaz Asadullah

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Edmonds, E.V., Theoharides, C. (2021). Child Labor and Economic Development. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_74-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_74-1

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