The paper develops a theoretical framework, and a diagrammatic apparatus, for explaining the supply of child labour. It examines the effect of credit, insurance, and poverty (defined as more than just low income). It also explains bonded child labour, a modern form of slavery closely associated...

The paper develops a theoretical framework, and a diagrammatic apparatus, for explaining the supply of child labour. It examines the effect of credit, insurance, and poverty (defined as more than just low income). It also explains bonded child labour, a modern form of slavery closely associated...

The paper develops a theoretical framework, and a diagrammatic apparatus, for explaining the supply of child labour. It examines the effect of credit, insurance, and poverty (defined as more than just low income). It also explains bonded child labour, a modern form of slavery closely associated...

A series of articles beginning with Basu and Van (1989) argue that a ban on child labour may be self-enforcing in the sense that, once an equilibrium where only adults work is established, parents may have no incentive to depart from it, and the ban is no longer required. This important result...

We examine the effects of differences in social capital on first and second best transfers to families with children, in an asymmetric information context where the number of births, and the future earning capacity of each child that is born, are random variables. The probability that a couple...

We consider a case where some of the parents have higher ability to raise children than others. First-best policy gives both types of parents the same level of utility. If parental actions are not fully observable, however, the policy maker has to take into account the incentive-compatibility...

The causes and consequences of child labour are examined theoretically and empirically within a household decision framework, with endogenous fertility and mortality. The data come from a nationally representative survey of Indian rural households. The complex interactions uncovered by the...

There is no empirical evidence that trade exposure per se increases child labour. As trade theory and household economics lead us to expect, the cross-country evidence seems to indicate that trade reduces or, at worst, has no significant effect on child labour. Consistently with the theory, a...

Decisions concerning marriage, fertility, participation, and the education of children are explained using a two-stage game-theoretical model. The paper examines the effects of (i) family law (cost of obtaining a divorce, alimony, availability of quasi-marriages such as PACS in France, and civil...

Conventional pension systems suffer from a design defect which makes them financially unsustainable, and a source of inefficiency for the economy as a whole. The paper outlines a second-best policy which includes a public pension system made up of two parallel schemes, a Bismarckian one allowing...