On The Distributional Consequences Of Child Labor Legislation

A dynamic heterogeneous agent general equilibrium model is constructed to quantify the effects of child labor legislation on human capital accumulation and the distribution of wealth and welfare. Crucial model elements include a human capital externality in the market sector, an informal home production sector in which child labor laws cannot be enforced, uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk, borrowing constraints, and endogenous wage and interest rate determination in general equilibrium. The model is calibrated to US data around 1880 [NBER WP 10347].