The Short- and Longer-Term Effects of a Child Labor Ban

• Tác giả: Caio Piza
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 331.13 Maladjustments in labor market
• Thông tin xuất bản: Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2024
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 296468
• Chủ đề: 1. CHILD LABOR; 2. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH; 3. LOCAL RANDOMIZATION; 4. MINIMUM EMPLOYMENT AGE; 5. REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY

Tóm tắt

This paper investigates whether the 1998 Brazilian law that increased the minimum employment age from 14 to 16 lowered child labor and increased school attendance and whether those effects persisted beyond age 16. Using a regression discontinuity design, the results indicate that the ban had a significant impact on urban boys, a cohort that represents half of all paid child labor in Brazil. This cohort had a 35 percent decrease in paid labor, driven mainly by a decrease in informal work, and an 11 percent increase in the share of those only attending school. In addition, there is evidence that these effects persist past the age of enforcement where the affected cohort was less likely to work and more likely to be only attending school beyond age 16. Overall, the results suggest that enforced bans on child labor can have significant immediate and persistent impacts on affected populations.