Improving educational and labor outcomes through child labor regulation
Improving educational and labor outcomes through child labor regulation
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DOI：
10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.07.003
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发表时间：
2018-10-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Vall Castello, Judit
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Del Rey, Elena;Jimenez-Martin, Sergi;Vall Castello, Judit
我们探讨了1980年改变西班牙法定最低工作年龄的童工法规的影响。特别是，改革将最低工作年龄从14岁提高到16岁，而义务教育年龄在1990年之前一直保持在14岁。为了研究这一变化对工作或学习动机的影响，我们考虑了改革前后不同时期出生的14岁个体的不同选择。在改革之前，年初出生的人在完成义务教育之前就可以合法工作。我们发现，如果在改革后年满14岁，年初出生的人更有可能完成义务教育和义务教育后的教育。教育程度的提高只能部分地转化为成年后更好的劳动力市场结果。根据该地区的社会经济发展水平，我们提供了改革对男女产生不同影响的证据，并对这些差异提出了合理的解释。据我们所知，这是第一篇论文，除了教育程度的提高，还发现了禁止青少年工作的童工法规对长期劳动力市场结果的相关影响。我们表明，这种类型的监管可以是一个发电机的经济发展，并指出这是必要的条件。
We explore the effects of a child labor regulation that changed the statutory minimum working age in Spain in 1980. In particular, the reform raised the minimum working age from 14 to 16, while the age for compulsory education remained at 14 until 1990. To study the effects of this change on the incentives to work or study, we consider the different alternatives available at age 14 to individuals born at various times of the year before and after the reform. Before the reform, individuals born at the beginning of the year were legally able to work before finishing compulsory education. We show that individuals born at the beginning of the year were more likely to complete both compulsory and post-compulsory education if they turned 14 after the reform. The increase in educational attainment translates into better labor market outcomes in adulthood only partially. Depending on the level of socioeconomic development of the region, we provide evidence of differential impacts of the reform on men and women and offer plausible explanations for these differences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that, apart from increases in educational attainment, also finds relevant effects on long-term labor market outcomes from child labor regulations that forbid teenager work. We show that this type of regulation can be a generator of economic development and point to the conditions required for this to be the case.