Child Labor and Household Wealth: Theory and Empirical Evidence of an Inverted-U
Child Labor and Household Wealth: Theory and Empirical Evidence of an Inverted-U
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DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.966160
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发表时间：
2007-02
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
K. Basu;Sanghamitra Das;Bhaskar Dutta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Basu;Sanghamitra Das;Bhaskar Dutta
一些关于童工的研究表明，更多的土地财富会导致更多的童工，从而使人们对童工是由贫困造成的假设产生怀疑。本文认为，缺少的要素是对劳动力市场的显式建模。我们开发了一个简单的模型，该模型表明土地持有量和童工之间存在倒U型关系。来自印度的一组独一无二的拥有童工工时信息的数据集证实了这一假设。研究表明，土地增加导致童工减少的转折点出现在每户3.6英亩的土地上，远低于观察到的土地持有的最大价值。
Some studies on child labor have shown that 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 is an explicit modeling of the labor market. We develop a simple model which suggests an inverted-U relationship between land holdings and child labor. A unique data set from India that has child labor hours information confirms this hypothesis. It is shown that the turning point beyond which more land leads to a decline in child labor occurs at 3.6 acres of land per household, which is well below the observed maximum value of land-holding.