The theoretical literature has pointed at the importance of access to credit market in determining the household decisions concerning children's activities and the reaction of households to adverse shocks. In this paper we address these issues making use of a unique data set for Guatemala that...

The authors analyze child work in Zambia, applying two recent surveys, the Bank's Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) of 1998, and the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC) of 1999. The analysis aims at...

The authors present a non-altruistic model of demand for children, in the presence of uncertainty about children's survival. Children are seen as assets, as they provide help during old age. If certain conditions are met, both the financial market, and the family network are used to transfer...

In this paper the authors present, and confront two approaches to modeling child labor. The first assume that parents are altruistic towards their offspring, while the second sees children as an asset to parents, especially in terms of old age security. The paper also extends the analysis to...

The causes and consequences of child labor are examined within a household decision framework with survival uncertainty and endogenous fertility. The data come from a nationally representative survey of Indian rural households. The complex interactions uncovered by the analysis suggest that mere...