Does minimum age of employment regulation reduce child labor?

Abstract

ProsIf enforced, minimum age regulation can be a useful tool to change how children work.Regulation is strongest when coordinated with compulsory schooling laws.Reductions in child labor can be accomplished with minimal impact on family living standards.Coerced and forced child laborers, although a small share of working children, may benefit the most from minimum age of employment laws.Minimum age regulation may establish new societal norms over time and may provide tools for the legal system to go after gross violators. ELEVATor PiTcHRegulation of the minimum age of employment is the dominant tool used to combat child labor globally.If enforced, these regulations can change the types of work in which children participate, but minimum age regulations are not a useful tool to promote education.Despite their nearly universal adoption, recent research for 59 developing countries finds little evidence that these regulations influence child time allocation in a meaningful way.Going forward, coordinating compulsory schooling laws and minimum age of employment regulations may help maximize the joint influence of these regulations on child time allocation, but these regulations should not be the focus of the global fight against child labor.does minimum age of employment regulation reduce child labor?The global fight against child labor might be better served by focusing less on existing laws and more on implementation and enforcement Keywords: child labor, human capital, social protection KEY FindinGs Source: Based on Figure 3. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Child employment with same school exit and employment ages Participation in paid employment (%) 0 -1 -2 -3 Years from relaxation of minimum age of employment -4 -5 -6The full reference list for this article is available from the iZA World of Labor website (http://wol.iza.org/articles/does-minimum-age-of-employment-regulation-reduce-child-labor).

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