Child labor and household wealth: Theory and empirical evidence of an inverted-U

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Development Economics
Year: 2010
Volume: 91
Issue: 1
Pages: 8-14

Authors (3)

Score contribution per author:

1.341 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Some studies on child labor have shown that, at the level of the household, greater land wealth leads to higher child labor, thereby casting doubt on the hypothesis that child labor is caused by poverty. This paper argues that the missing ingredient may be an explicit modeling of the labor market. We develop a simple model which suggests the possibility of an inverted-U relationship between land holdings and child labor. Using a unique data set that has child labor hours it is found that, controlling for child, household and village characteristics, the turning point beyond which more land leads to a decline in child labor occurs around 4 ac of land per household.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:deveco:v:91:y:2010:i:1:p:8-14
Journal Field
Development
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-24