If child labor as a mass phenomenon occurs not because of parental selfishness but because of the parents' concern for the household's survival, the popular argument for banning child labor loses much of its force. However, this assumption about parental decision-making coupled with the...

This chapter presents the main theoretical analyses in the area of child labour and their implications in terms of policy design. The discussion is based on the human capital approach and presents a simplified model that allows to frame the most relevant results present in the literature. It...

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...

Among other advocacy initiatives, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) focus on critical human and labor rights, Multinational Corporation’s (MNC) adherence to child labor codes of conduct, and the management of a solid socially responsible investing (SRI) relationship. NGO influence with MNCs...