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...

Whether globalisation is good or bad for child labour depends on initial conditions and domestic policies. In countries with comparatively large endowments of educated workers, pulling down trade barriers is a policy that, together with measures aimed at relaxing the household liquidity...