Child labour has always been one of the core concerns of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). In this paper, we investigate whether ILO conventions have contributed to reducing the scale of the problem. We use two approaches to answering the question. Evidence based on country-level data...

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...

This paper investigates how the permanent departure of the father from the household affects children's school enrolment and work participation in rural Colombia. Our results show that departure of the father decreases children's school enrolment by around 4 percentage points, and increases...

Child labour, particularly in its worst forms, harms the health and general welfare of children. It is considered to be a decisive impediment to the development efforts of developing countries. Working children drop out of school early and the resulting comparative lack of knowledge and skills...

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...

We test the often-cited hypothesis that high levels of child labour attract foreign investors. Using panel data we show the overall effect, which child labour has on foreign direct investment (FDI), to be a (small) negative one. We find strong evidence for the theoretical prediction that child...

Using detailed survey data from Nepal, this paper examines the determinants of child labor with a special emphasis on urban proximity. We find that children residing in or near urban centers attend school more and work less in total but are more likely to be involved in wage work or in a small...

The paper deals with child labour in developing countries. We address a problem that has recently drawn much attention at the international level, that is, how to invest in women's rights to advance the rights of both women and children. We study the problem from a new perspective. In our...

Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers, amounting to 6.4 percent of GDP and 31.5 percent of total exports of goods and services in 2005. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital...