Child Labor and Schooling in A Globalizing World: Some Evidence from Urban India

Abstract

Trade influences child time allocation in developing countries through its effects on the returns to education, labor demand, and poverty. We examine how India's dramatic 1991 trade liberalization influenced child labor and schooling in urban areas of India that differ in the extent to which employment lost tariff protection. In general, urban India experienced large increases in schooling and decreases in child labor over the 1990s. We find that these improvements are attenuated in Indian cities where employment experienced larger reductions in tariff protection. Girls are particularly affected. We argue that the observed changes in child time allocation are consistent with differential declines in poverty across regions, but changes in the economic opportunities of children might also play a role in our findings. (JEL: F15, F16)

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